Old World Soldier: The Broken Road
by ThatGoodOl'Boy22
Summary: After discovering he was responsible for the destruction of the Divide, and after Joshua's death at the hands of Ulysses, The Courier travels the Lonesome Road to set things straight on a personal crusade. Unwilling to let him go alone, Gaz tracks her partner through through the hell of the Divide, but soon discovers her Pre-War past has come back to haunt her.
1. Old World Ghosts

_**Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and girls! I am pleased to announce that I am back! If you haven't read my previous work, Old World Soldier: Brave New World then I invite you go back and read it, as this story is a sequel to my original piece. This chapter is the prologue to what will be a fairly long story, and also sets its ground work. As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments or recommendations.**_

The path through the Canyon Wreckage was littered with the rusted skeletons of two semi-trucks and other debris. The moon and star light illuminated the prewar rubble. Floyd carefully stepped around the ancient garbage, Gaz and Gannon closely followed him. The old semi-truck and trailer lay on its side, with faint sounds of movement coming from within. He clicked the safety off his Automatic Rifle and motioned to his companions to cover him. He quickly moved around to the back of the trailer and pointed his rifle inside. A mother Coyote and two cubs were laying in the back. The mother snarled and barred her teeth when she saw Walker.

"Easy girl. I'm leaving."

He was about to leave when he noticed the phrase " _Courier 6?"_ spray painted to the wall

The mother Coyote growled and got up and took a step forward. Walker stepped away, but didn't turn his back.

"Anything?"

"Just a Coyote. Leave her be."

At the end of the Canyon Wreckage was a bus, its door was rusted open. Someone had painted " _The Divide"_ on a piece of plywood. Floyd put his hand on Gannon's shoulder.

"If I'm not back in a few days… Tell the New Canaanites what happened."

Gannon stared at Floyd for a long time, He then shook his head and looked at the ground.

"First off this is going to take you more than a few days... I can understand your desire for personal redemption, I can get why you feel the need to visit Hopeville and Ashton… But this whole thing with Ulysses… Is revenge REALLY worth risking your life? Killing Ulysses won't bring back Joshua or any New Canaanite for that matter."

In response, Floyd pulled back his bangs and showed Gannon the scar on his forehead.

"Remember this? Remember what Benny did? Do you think I should have just let him go too?"

"Was blasting the upper half of Benny's torso and head across the Top's Presidential room's wall necessary? No. But you did anyway, and then got yourself shot three times in the gut by his body guards. I remember you stumbling into the Followers Camp, you were half dead from blood loss. After I pulled those three .38 slugs out of your belly I expected you to learn something about revenge…"

"Benny had it coming. And the body guard got lucky, that's all."

"You're missing the point. Ulysses isn't some sleaze bag like Benny. He's a Courier, like you. You may have different ideals and beliefs, but you've both walked a similar path. When you see Ulysses, at least try to talk to him: Courier to Courier, before you start shooting. If not for you, then do it for me." Gannon said

"This man went to great lengths to find me. He sent Gaius Magnus to test me, and gave Magnus that commands manifest to essentially lure me into his trap. He played a hand in the destruction of New Canaan, which led to the countless deaths of my Canaanite brothers and sisters. But those actions almost seem trivial compared to what he did to Joshua… But you're right Gannon… You're right."

Gannon let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad I could get through to you. Any man can be reasoned with, and a man of Ulysses nature is no exception."

"No. Not that. I mean you're right about him not being a sleaze bag like Benny. Benny was a liar, a cheater and a thief. A common thug with very low character and had no honor whatsoever. Ulysses is none of those things. Ulysses is something much worse. Did you know the only reason he chose to command the assault on the Grand Canyon was to get to me? He willingly sacrificed countless lives to try to kill me. Many of those lives were his own goddamn people. However, he has some sort of honor; In our last fight he had the drop on me: he could have shot me in the back and been done with me. But he let me turn and face him, and I respect him for that. Chivalry is one of my highest values. But after he realized Legion wasn't enough to kill me, he deserted them. The Legion has the highest standards for loyalty and he just cashed out. This man has no loyalty, and has very clearly demonstrated that he is willing to kill a lot of people to find me."

Gannon shook his head "You respect him? You think he possesses chivalry?"

"To some extent, I do."

"Them talk to the man. He is clearly a true Courier, and he has seen that you are to. So if you really are a Courier, then you'll try reasoning with him."

"For you Gannon. I'll do it for you, but a truce I cannot guarantee. "

Gannon half smiled "Close enough… Look…. Just don't die." Gannon said

"Don't worry. I've walked more treacherous roads than The Divide."

"I don't think you have… Hopeville… Ashton… this whole goddamn place is not what it used to be. It will be nothing like the Hopeville and Ashton you visited on that delivery. I hope you know what you're getting into."

"I know what I'm getting into."

"If you say so Floyd. If you say so."

Floyd extended his hand. The two shook hands, then Gannon pulled him in for a hug. Gannon walked off into the night of the Mojave. Floyd turned to Gaz. He stared deep into her eyes

"I'll be honest, I don't want you to come with me. This is something I started, and I intend on finishing it on my own. There's no need for you to get caught up in the middle." Floyd said solemnly

Gaz frowned and shook her head

"No Floyd, I'm afraid I'm coming with you. Your business with Ulysses is your fight, I get that. When it comes time to face him I'll let you deal with him whichever way you please and won't interfere. But it was _you_ who woke me up and brought me into this world, _you_ taught me how to survive, how to choose my battles, how to not be afraid of the unknown. And then _you_ saved me from a lifetime of servitude in the Enclave. I'm coming with you goddamn it."

"You are the last of your kind! You survived the goddamn apocalypse without any horrific mutations! But most of all… You are one of the few people in this world that I truly care for. If you died from following me-"

Gaz cut him off "Remember when I first woke up from stasis? I walked all the way to my home in Salt Lake City by myself and nearly got killed. Back then, I felt the same way you feel now. Confused, pissed off, driven by a purpose. That propose almost got me killed. Your purpose might kill you too. I remember refusing your help, but you followed me anyway and I'm standing here today because of it. So here's the deal, if you go into The Divide, I'm coming with you. If you refuse, I'll follow you anyway."

Floyd sighed

"Stubborn to the end… Damn you Gaz... You'll have a better chance if you stick with me. But I go first."

The two of them walked forward, through the rusted bus and into The Divide. Floyd kicked open the other door and set foot in the sand. The Geiger counters on their Pip Boys began to tick. Particles of sand, dust and ash blew through the air at such a high speed they stung the face and any exposed skin. A cloud of the contaminated air struck Gaz in the face, it had a sharp metallic taste of copper and iron. The air burned the lungs and stung the back of the throat. Her first breath of the tainted air made her cough uncontrollably. Floyd looked at her

"I'm fine. Just a bit of dust."

"The last time I walked this road was when I was delivering that package… Those bastards in the Enclave… They used me… My own lust for money is what drove me here in the first place"

"Floyd you shut mouth right now. There is no way you could have known." Gaz then broke into another fit of coughing

"You sure you're ok?"

"For Christ's sake yes. Just keep leading the way."

To the right side of them was the entrance to a military service tunnel. Gaz remembered the days when she had been stationed in the Ashton Military base and used the tunnels regularly.

"Well the good news is this path leads directly between both Hopeville and Ashton, when we get there-"

Floyd stopped walking abruptly and was completely silent. Gaz bumped into him

"Why'd we stop?"

Floyd remained silent. His eyes were wide open and fixed dead ahead. She looked in the direction Floyd was facing. The path they were walking on suddenly ended in a steep cliff which was above a massive complex of canyons, it was like the path had been ripped away. The view in front of them was a sight of unparalleled destruction, a spectacle of indescribable horror. It was Armageddon all over again. It looked like a force of the utmost destruction had torn through the area: atomizing anyone in the immediate radius, and leaving their silhouette permanently etched into the cement. A force capable of melting glass and metal, and flay the skin and flesh off anyone outside the impact zone. The wind carried visible currents of sand and dust through the labyrinths; it looked like the wind itself could kill you. The valleys and canyons were full of rubble and debris: half crumbled buildings, twisted rebar, cars and other vehicles lay strewn about as if they been thrown into the air like they were a child's playthings. Floyd's face turned white, cold sweat formed on his forehead. He hunched over and puked, then spat and looked up

"This path used to lead to Hopeville and Ashton. Now it's a cliff… It… It just crumbled into the earth.

The last words of Gaius Magnus echoed around the inside of Floyd's thoughts: _"When you see what you've done to Hopeville and Ashton hehehe… The truth… The truth of The Divide will break you….Heheheh…."_

The Centurion's wicked final words were now spelled out clear as day in of him front. Magnus's sinister laugh taunting him from beyond the grave. Floyd stared dead ahead at The Divide, like The Divide was staring back. Gaz looked at his face, his expression reminded her of the way she felt after waking up from stasis. A mask of hopelessness and despair. He unbuckled his holster and drew his .45, he held the pistol tightly in his hand and looked at it for a long time

"Floyd… What are you gonna do with that? Why don't you put that thing back in its holster."

He looked at the gash of destruction left in the ground below then back at the gun.

"WHAT ARE YOU!? A courier!? Or a goddamn Legionary who would rather commit suicide instead of facing his path?!"

That got Floyd's attention, he lowered the gun and put it back in his holster. As soon as she heard the holster button snap shut she reared her fist back and hit Floyd as hard as she could in the face. Floyd fell over like a ragdoll

"What the fuck is wrong with you?! You're stronger than that! Now get your ass up!" She said and pulled him to his feet

"Magnus, Ulysses and even the damn Enclave Computer were right…"

"So?! I can't begin to imagine how you must feel, but I know what it's like to be used. Man the fuck up and redeem yourself."

"Ok… Ok… But how the hell are we going to get down there? We have no climbing gear…"

"That service tunnel we passed leads into an underground military complex. We can get in from there."

"How do you know this?"

"I was stationed here before. My military dog tags might let us in."

They approached the thick metal door and Gaz held her dog tags up to the scanner at the door. A green light near the door flashed and the door retracted open.

"Glad you brought me now?" She asked and put her tags away

"Not just yet. You've been here before, what should we expect in terms of automated security?"

"Last time I was stationed here they had the works; sentry bots, Gatling laser turrets, motion detectors, probably a few tripwires. Be prepared for a fight."

Floyd loaded a clip of armor piercing rounds into his rifle and racked the slide.

They entered the tunnel, sparks of electricity jumped from live wires and lit up the tunnel like a strobe light. The phrase " _You can go home, Courier_ " was crudely spray painted on the tunnel wall. Walker stopped and examined the graffiti

"You can go home, Courier… What the hell does that even mean?"

The blast door at the end of the tunnel slid open revealing a prewar command center; it seemed like the entire facility was tilted. There was a large observation window but a thick steel blast cover shielded it, and a control panel in front of it with a leaver. Everything was an eerie quiet, only the dull hum of the ventilation system and quiet beeps of computers remained. Tangled wires hung from the ceiling like vines, they ducked under them and proceeded with caution, on both sides of the room was a door, Gaz pointed to the left side door

"I'm pretty sure this one leads into the main facility, I'm not sure… Its been a long time since I was here." She held her I.D. tags up to the scanner, it was a different looking scanner having a dish shaped antenna instead of a screen. She waved the tags over the dish but nothing happened.

"No dice. My tags are the older model."

"Let me have a try." Floyd said with a bobby pin and screw driver in hand

"I don't think that's gonna work…"

"Yeah Yeah. It was designed by the U.S. Army engineer core."

"No it was actually designed by Vault Tech. There is no place to insert a key, it's all electronic. Good luck getting in."

"Bullshit. There is no lock I can't pick." He said carefully examining the door for an opening

"If you say so. I'm going to have a look around, maybe there's a service key around here."

"Don't stray too far."

"Oh shut it. I know this place better than you."

Using the computer terminal, she opened the door on the right side of the room and walked into a wide open room full of computer monitors and towers. With her Marksman carbine in hand she walked into the room. There were a few rusty ammo boxes, she looked through them and searched for anything that could be of use. She opened all the drawers to all the desks in the room, looking for anything like a key card or old I.D. tags, but mostly just found junk. Then she noticed something in the corner of her eye; it was a tube. A stasis tube. She stared at it, looking at it made her skin crawl and made her feel claustrophobic. It was like the tube she had been sealed in for two centuries, but this one was much smaller had more wires and hoses attached to it. She cautiously walked towards it. She remembered the last time she had opened a stasis tube; a ghoul had sprung out. She wiped away the dirt on the Plexiglas. She was expecting to find either a ghoul or a stasis subject, but instead found a little eyebot. Out of sheer curiosity, she tapped a few keys on the nearby monitor and opened the tube door. With a flash and crackle of electricity, the little robot hovered out of the tube. The Sputnik-like robot warmed up its speakers and said

" _Next week, on Ralphie The Robot's Incredible Odyssey!_

 _Ralphie! If mean old General Winters catches you, you'll never make it home!"_

The child like dialogue was followed by a series of eyebot beeps

" _No Ralphie! Fly far! Fly fast!_

 _Tune in next week!"_

Gaz smiled, the little robot's recording of her favorite childhood radio show brought back fond memories.

"Hello there little guy. I haven't seen an eyebot like you since before the war." She said in a relaxed tone

The eyebot beeped and chirped in response, Gaz had experienced eyebots before and could make sense of the computer gibberish

"Yes, I actually do mean from before the war. The Great War, that is. I'm over 200 years old."

The eyebot beeped and shuddered

"Yeah, I know how you feel. I was in one of those stasis tubes before too."

The bot beeped suspiciously

"Yes really. I wouldn't lie about that. Why don't you stick with me? There is someone I'd like you to meet."

The bot hovered after her. Meanwhile Floyd had managed to find an opening in the door and was futilely trying to pick the lock. His bobby pin snapped

"Son of a bitch…"

He plucked the broken pin out and tossed the broken pieces in a pile of other broken pins. Gaz came walking in with the robot behind her

"Hey Floyd, check out what I found."

Walker glanced at the robot, then back at his work

"A flying trashcan, great... You know it was one of these little fuckers that received the package I brought here? It then flew off and detonated several nuclear warheads beneath the ground. Unless it can do anything useful, I want you to get rid of it."

"Why?"

"It will just slow us down. Besides, look at it; it has next to no armor and a tiny little energy weapon. It might make a good decoy though…"

"You know he can understand you right? Not all robots are just mindless automations, they actually have a personality."

"I've never met a robot I could trust. One of them dug me out of the ground, but then proceeded to stalk me all over the wastes."

"Yeah. I get it. You prefer simplistic tools over high-tech tools, but just give him a chance."

As the two humans argued, the Sputnik like robot hovered up to the dish and raised its zapper. The triangular arch of electricity jumped onto the dish receiver and the lights came on. The blast cover over the observation window sild open and revealed a massive intercontinental ballistic missile. Gaz cracked a cocky smile, and pulled the leaver on the control panel opening the electronic door.

"This place is a shadow of the Old World. Maybe you should let the Old World Soldier give you some advice from time to time eh?" She said and walked through the door.

"After you, Lieutenant."

The eyebot made some snide beeps

"What did it just say?! You better not be talkin' shit on me…"

"Nothing." Gaz said and whispered to the robot "Watch your mouth!"

The robot made a few more beeps and Gaz nodded "He says his name is ED-E, and that you might know his counterpart back in the Mojave."

"I once found a broken eyebot in Primm, but didn't know how to fix it… Maybe that's what he's talking about."

The door ED-E opened led into a hallway. A broken eyebot lay on the floor. Floyd ignored it but Gaz picked it up and pulled out a circuit board.

"Hold still, this is from a more advanced model." She said to ED-E and inserted the chip in a port on the robot's side.

The exited the hallway into the missile silo. The weapon of mass destruction towered above them and pointed to the sky through the open silo. They climbed the spiral staircase around the missile and onto the floor above. Instantly a U.S. Military Sentry Bot came rolling up to them. Floyd raised his Automatic rifle but Gaz stopped him.

"Don't shoot! Just wait one goddamn second." She said held up her I.D. tags

The sentry bot scanned the tags and sat quietly for a moment as it processed them.

"Welcome to the Hopeville missile base Lt. Patterson. Please report to General Retslaf for debriefing and new orders."

The sentry bot then turned to Walker "Civilian: You are to remain with your escort Lt. Patterson for your entire stay. If you leave her company, security will fire on you."

The sentry bot rolled away, The Courier lowered his weapon and shook his head. Gaz put her tags away

"Those things have some thick armor, it's a good thing I they don't attack U.S. Military personnel. If you didn't have me as an escort…"

"Oh please, I could have handled that thing."

"Yeah I bet you could. Two or three at the same time? They'd cut you to pieces with minigun fire. Come on, that bot said to report to General Retslaf, I used to be under his command."

"Really?"

"Yep. He got me transferred out of Alaska, and assigned me to this base. You probably know his type; he was crew cut, had bleached white teeth, talked about boxing matches and The Dodgers, calls cashiers and shop-keepers by their first name. A real asshole."

"That's uh… That's a colorful description, Gaz."

Gaz grinned

"Yeah? Well he was a… Oh god…" Gaz said as they entered the Generals office.

Sitting in the base commander's chair was the dead and rotting body of a ghoul. The dead ghoul had a 10mm pistol still gripped in its hand and had a self-inflicted gunshot wound in its temple. The corpse wore a finely tailored U.S. Army General uniform, which was in perfect condition aside from some blood splatter.

"Why in the hell is that ghoul wearing Retslaf's uniform? And why is it holding a gun? Ghouls can use guns?"

"Gaz… I think that ghoul _is_ Retslaf. It's not a feral ghoul, those things have lost all of their humanity. But some ghouls keep their sanity and can live normal lives… Aside from the fact that they look like corpses."

"That's impossible. How could it be Retslaf? He'd be over 200 years old at this point."

Floyd looked at her with a raised eyebrow "Really? The Old World soldier is telling me it's impossible to live for 200 years?"

"Well he didn't undergo stasis."

"There are other ways to live an unnaturally long life… Stasis is a very luxurious way compared to what Ol' Retslaf here went through… If you become a ghoul, you can live for centuries… At the cost of your skin."

"All from absorbing too much radiation?"

"That's right. So remember to take RadX and don't drink glowing water."

The two of them then rifled through the General's desk, and found a high clearance security badge. They were about to leave when Gaz turned around and stared at the General's body. Despite how much she disliked him, she couldn't bring herself to leave her former commander's body in such a degrading state. She cut a United States flag down off an ornamental flag pole and covered the body with it.

"Thanks for bringing me home from Alaska old man…" She whispered and followed Floyd out

Floyd was carefully reading a map of the base

"Ok, ok, ok. If we take the door to the left of the General's office, then it should take us to the backup generators, we can restart the power and -"

"Pass through the security room and into another service tunnel which will take us directly to Hopeville." Gaz said with a half-smile

"Ok Soldier-Lady, you lead the way…"

More sentry bots rolled by, the automations patrolling the halls and corridors which they had patrolled for centuries. Gaz and Floyd walked right by them. Floyd had to admit, he might not have been able to make it past them alone. The lock of the door next to the office had another dish-shaped receiver for a lock

"ED-E, you're up again. The door please." She said

The little robot chirped and shot a bolt of electromagnetic energy into the receiver, the door retracted open and the wretched smell of rotting corpses came rushing out in a wave of foulness.

"What is the source of that stink?" Gaz said almost gagging

Walker peeked inside; in front of him was the cut up pieces of sentry bot, the pieces were half melted. A few other sentry bots sat lifelessly in random parts of the room, each of them had holes melted through them, one had a Bowie Knife sticking out of its combat initiator. He pulled the blade out and looked at it

"Now this is a knife." He said in a fake Australian accent

When he looked up from the knife he discovered the source of the smell; A dead body was pinned to the wall with a piece of shrapnel. Floyd had been around death his whole life, dead bodies didn't even phase him anymore, but this carcass was different – it didn't have any skin. The ruby red muscle and tissue was fully exposed over the dead man's entire body. A scowl still registered on what was left of his lips and cheeks. It wore the tattered armor of an NCR Trooper. Another skinless body lay trapped beneath the severed torso of a sentry bot, an industrial arch welder was still clasped in his raw, skinless hands, it wore the shredded remains of a Legionary uniform. Then they noticed more, it looked like there had been a vicious fight between the base security and these strange skin-stripped men.

"Christ alive… it looks like they've been flayed. Let's restart the main power and get the hell out of the place…"

They shuffled to the other side of the room, careful to avoid stepping on bodies. Gaz accidently kicked one of the more rotten and bloated bodies; a pocket of gas ruptured in the corpse's intestines and leaked out in a simply horrid cloud of stench. They reached the generator and Gaz swiped Retslaf's security badge over the monitor. A dish-receiver popped out and ED-E struck it with another jolt and the base came back to life. After working their way around the bodies they opened the service tunnel and quickly left the base. There was more security and more skinless bodies. Gatling laser turrets tracked their every move, the only thing keeping them from opening fire was Gaz's I.D. tags. With the end of the tunnel in sight, Floyd increased his pace. Gaz swiped her I.D. tags over the lock and placed her hand on the release switch.

"Floyd… No matter what we see out there or who we encounter, know that NONE of it is your fault. There is no way you could have known…"

"I'd like to believe that… I really would. But I still had a hand in all of this… I need to see this first hand if I want a shot at redemption."

"Before we go I must ask you this… How will this redeem you?"

"By walking this Lonesome Road through Hopeville and Ashton… I prove that I'm not afraid of my past, and that I'm willing to finish what I started."

"And who are you trying to prove this too Ulysses? Gannon? Joshua?

"All of them, and you as well. But even more important than that, is I need to prove it to myself."

With that Gaz hit the switch and the mechanical door retracted open. A surge of hot, metallic tasting air swept through the door. It made Gaz cough hoarsely, and she spat out a wad of brown phlegm.

"You ready?" Floyd asked

"I'll be right behind you."


	2. Hell in the Mojave

The first rays of the morning sun began to peek over the horizon, they were harsh and bright. The Courier and Old World Soldier crept out of the bunker service tunnel and into the remains of the above ground Hopeville Military Base. Seeing the destruction up close made Floyd nauseous. It wasn't as bad as he had expected it though, the surrounding area still had about half of its buildings still standing, but the blast had thrown countless amounts of debris into the area: Cars, trucks and buses lay strewn about, even a massive 5 ton howitzer artillery piece lay on its side. The Geiger counters on their Pip-Boys began to tick. The tainted air felt coarse to breath and stung Gaz's throat. Suddenly the Sputnik-like robot flew in front of the two, it hovered there for a minute then began to speak

"There's your signal… Faint, but there. Just like NCR – Voice without fire, without strength, sick…"

It was a deep voice. A firm and authoritative voice. A familiar voice.

"Ulysses… How are you feeling? Last time I checked you had a gunshot wound in the belly and had a poisoned knife stuck in your liver. You aren't going to run off this time are you?"

"Your impudence will be your downfall, Courier. But I must admit, your true strength far exceeds the stories and rumors I've heard about you. Now… Let's test that strength. That "conviction" Courier. Ahead of you America sleeps, its nightmares filled with quakes and storms."

"Hold up… How are you speaking through ED-E?"

"The robot with you… all of them are machines. Radios, Old World tech reshaped with new hands. Historians, Couriers, carrying messages. Seen them as I walked the Divide, tending other machines. That one… sealed in the Hopeville silo… A sign America is waking up. It will follow you, obey you. Carry it until we meet face to face, then there'll be no more need for it to carry my words…"

"That doesn't answer my question, but ok…. Well Ulysses, I've got to confess… You were right. Now I see the destruction before me, I understand. I understand why you wanted to end my life, I understand why you sent Gaius Magnus…"

"Magnus… You speak as if Magnus and I were friends… I despised that man… But he did prove useful. I turned him into a Courier… just like us and not like us in all the ways that matter. I knew you'd kill him… And I knew you'd find the commands manifest… He delivered his message."

"You were both legion… Aren't you supposed to be like brothers?"

"I used to be part of the Twisted Hairs tribe, but to Caesar and Magnus it was just another tribe to be conquered. The Twisted Hairs was the 87th tribe to be conquered. It's where Magnus got his name _Dominator of the 87_ _th_ _tribe_ "

"Hmm. I now know why you deserted the Legion…"

"I didn't desert the Legion… I was never truly part of the Legion. I was forced into servitude, as an assassin instead of a slave. The day the Twisted Hairs became the Legion's 87th tribe, I became my own faction. I didn't follow the Legion, I used the Legion. Just like you're using this Soldier of the Past."

"He is NOT using me! I came here on my own freewill. This place is my past, a place where I cast my Old World shadow. And you said it yourself that America… The Old World is waking up." Gaz said

"The Old World… This place is a slice of it. Old Military. Can still smell the pride… And the fear. It's a hope of the Old World, wrapped in fencing, covered with storm. Got new inhabitance now, other than then automated ghosts. More recent… Recruits. You are correct, the Old World is waking up, but as a Soldier of the Past, you should know that some pieces of the Old World are best left undisturbed."

"What are you talking about?"

"… Soon you both shall find out. You and I, are not so different, Soldier of the Past. The flag you followed in your past life, I've adopted it for myself, carry it on my back where ever I go to spread its message. You followed a cause, an idea… a history, just like I did. Just like me, your cause betrayed and abandoned you, so you became your own faction."

"What are you talking about?"

"Forget it Gaz, this fool isn't making any sense. What exactly do you want, Courier?"

"I want you. Spent too many years looking for you - now, letting you come to me. Thought carrying that Chip would end you, no... you got lives in you, hard to kill. Storms, bullets... sand and wind, yet still you walk. For now."

"How do you know about the chip?!" Floyd snapped

"Like you, I was asked to carry it. But when I saw your name on the list, I choose to let you carry that piece of death. You probably don't even know it's true propose."

"I don't know and at this point I don't care. This has gone on long enough. Where can I find you?"

"At the end of the Divide. It's a long and dangerous path. Warheads set off the collapse. Warheads can open it again. There is a device. A trigger to detonate them. Find it, then come find me. The Divide will send its worst after you, it may even break you. We shall see if you are stronger…"

The audio cut out and ED-E returned to normal. Floyd seized ED-E by the antenna and pulled him out of the air then placed the muzzle of his .45 on the robots face plate.

"Tell me the truth, robot: Did Ulysses plant you for us to find?" Floyd growled

ED-E frantically beeped

"Let him go! He says he just wants to get back home. He wasn't planted."

Floyd kept the gun trained on the eyebot

"Floyd! If you destroy that robot, then we WILL NOT be able to unlock anymore base doors. I urge you to consider that."

Floyd slowly let the hammer on his pistol down and holstered it. He glared at the little robot, then focused his attention on the sand-swept landscape in front of them. He turned to Gaz

"We need to get to higher ground and get a good vantage point." He said and motioned to a half destroyed gas station "Can you give me a lift?"

Gaz cupped her hands together and Floyd placed his foot in her hands. She lifted Floyd up to the roof, the hydraulic strength of her power armor made it seem effortless. Once on the roof Floyd extended a hand and began to pull Gaz up. He grit his teeth and strained as he lifted her, the power armor and Gauss Rifle weighed more than she did. They crouched down and surveyed the landscape, ahead of them was the remains of an office building. It was mostly just a tall pile of broken concrete and rebar. Floyd peered into his binoculars and scanned for threats, Gaz used the scope on her Gauss Rifle and did the same. She noticed the distinct outline of a person in the rubble of the office building, the person wore tattered NCR armor that had been haphazardly repaired with street signs and license plates

"Contact. Looks like one of those NCR guys you keep telling me about." She whispered, but then began to cough

"I see him." Floyd said and stood up

The supposed NCR trooper had his back turned

Walker took a breath and called out to the man

"Hey you out there! You NCR? Its ok, we're friends of the Republic!"

The man slowly turned around, that's when they saw it. The man was just like the skinless bodies from back in the bunker, except this one was alive. The tissue on his flayed face bore several large blisters and cysts from substantial radiation burns. The man made eye contact with Floyd, then quickly raised a battered and rusty sniper rifle and fired. The .308 round whistled past Walker's ear, and both the Courier and Old World Soldier dropped behind cover.

"Cease fire! We are on the same side!" Floyd yelled

Another rifle shot cracked out and a round ricocheted off the wall they were hiding behind.

"Idiot! We're friends of the NCR! Stop shooting!"

The skin-flayed man emptied his clip, high powered rifle rounds streaking over their heads.

"I'll distract him. You take him out with the Gauss Rifle."

"Understood."

"And Gaz?" he asked

"Yeah?"

"Please don't miss."

Floyd crawled on his belly across the roof, Gaz took the electronic safety catch off the Gauss Rifle. For some reason she was beginning to feel nauseous and dizzy. Floyd looked at her, and she nodded to let him know she was ready. He leaned out from behind cover

"Over here jackass!"

The Marked Man swung the rifle barrel over at Floyd, Gaz stood up and put the crosshairs on the center of its chest and fired. The dizziness had thrown off her normally perfect aim, and the high velocity round impacted on the upper right part of the Marked Man's chest. Despite it being a non-lethal shot, the man still went down. Gaz broke into another fit of coughing, she tasted blood in her mouth. Floyd jumped down and walked up to the Marked Man. He kept him Automatic Rifle "The Jackhammer" pointed on the wounded man's head. Radiation burns and blisters covered his exposed flesh and his teeth were cracked and broken from him clenching them. He was missing his nose, two bloody holes in his face served as his nostrils and he lacked most of his cheeks; he had but a few strings of flesh connecting his upper and lower jaw. It looked like a young man; Floyd wasn't sure, too hard to tell without any age-defining facial skin. The Gauss rifle wound was steaming from the intense heat of the projectile

"What… What are you? Are you a ghoul?"

The man growled like a rabid animal and tried to pull a .44 magnum revolver out of a chest mounted holster. He unsteadily pulled the revolver out, his eyes never left Floyd's. His wounded shoulder gave out and he dropped the gun. Floyd picked it up and tossed it away. Floyd usually had a smug look on his face whenever he confronted a wounded enemy, but this time he had an appearance of sorrow. He looked the man in the eye

"What's your name, boy?"

The man's eyes burned with intense hate, a type of hate previously unknown to Floyd.

"I am the embodiment of Pain! And my brother is known as Suffering!" The flayed man hissed

"I'm sorry that this happened to you."

The man attempted to lunge forward and snapped his jaws in attempts to bite the Courier. Floyd took a step back and shot him. Gaz climbed down and joined him

"Sorry I didn't kill him. I guess my aim is a little off today."

"Make it quicker next time. Poor bastard has gone through enough…"

"What is he? Some type of ghoul?"

"Maybe… Magnus said I _"had marked them for the rest of their sad miserable lives."_ I think I know what he was talking about now."

"I'd rather blow my brains out then become one of them…"

A wave of .12 gauge buckshot suddenly showered the pair. Another Marked Man clad in tribal armor was standing on a broken concrete beam above them. He pumped his hunting shotgun and fired again, two of the buckshot pellets hit the soft underside of Floyd's arm. The Courier raised his Automatic Rifle and fired a 5 round burst, the rifle rounds struck him in the abdomen. The Marked Man lost his balance and fell off his perch into a pile of rebar. One of the rusty rebar rods was sticking straight up and the Marked Man fell directly onto it. The steel bar pierced into his lower back and burst out of his belly in a jet of blood and bile. Even though he had been run-through, the Marked Man continued to thrash about. He grabbed the steel bar and began to pull it out of his midsection. Blood dripped from his lipless mouth as he groaned, the bar made a repulsive sucking noise as he pulled. The bar must have ripped his intestines as a hideous smell of fecal matter and blood filled the air. Both Gaz and Walker watched in astonishment at his extremely high tolerance to pain. Walker finally drew his pistol and shot the impaled Marked Man in the head. A strong wave of nausea swept over Gaz and she hunched over and puked.

"Are you feeling ok? You look kind of pale." Floyd said

"Yeah, the smell just got to me. That's all." She said and coughed again

Floyd looked at her suspiciously

"Don't give me that look. I said I'm fine. "

"Ok. Ok. Let's move up."

They carefully moved around the rubble of a mostly destroyed shop. They came to a low level window and looked across the street. There was an old crumbling office building directly across the street and a bunch of military barracks behind the two.

"Do you know what this detonator even looks like?" Floyd asked

"Not exactly… The week before I left this place for stasis, I heard some of the egg-heads talking about a portable laser detonator for warheads. It slows the reaction in the bomb and muffles it so you won't have a full sized nuclear explosion, but radiation is still a problem. I imagine it's kind of like some sort of laser pistol or rifle."

"Right then…" Floyd said and pointed to a half collapsed office building across the street "Let's check there, then we'll fan out and search the barracks for this detonator."

They came out of cover and walked towards the office building. In the corner of her eye Gaz noticed movement. She looked up at the building's roof. Suddenly a head popped up above the wall, Gaz could see the crimson color of exposed flesh. The Marked Man ducked back down, Gaz was about to tell Floyd when suddenly he popped back up and mounted a large, strange looking rocket launcher on his shoulder.

"RGP! On the roof! Move it! Move it! Move it!" She screamed.

Gaz had a fear of rocket launchers. She knew from her Alaskan combat experience that a single person armed with rockets could kill even the most heavily armored Power Armor unit; the Chinese did this very effectively. A small rocket came streaking down from the roof leaving a red trail of exhaust. It hit the ground and exploded nearby in a red fire ball. By this time Walker and Gaz had broken into a dead run, there wasn't any time to shoot back. Gaz knew that most missile and rocket launchers only held one shot and they had a long and complex reloading process. That's what made her feel a cold sweat when another four rockets came rapidly shooting down and landed around them. Twisted shards of white hot shrapnel scattered all over them and pieces of broken earth and asphalt were thrown into the air. Floyd clutched his leg as a hot piece of twisted metal tore into his lower thigh. The Marked Man continued to rapidly fire rockets. They scrambled into the office building and under the cover of a staircase.

Floyd tried to pull the shrapnel out of his leg but it hurt too bad. He grimaced and slowed the bleeding with a stimpack

"You ok?" Gaz said looking at the piece of metal protruding from Walkers thigh

"Just a flesh wound."

"What kind of RPG is that? I've never seen one like it." Gaz said trying to catch her breath

"I haven't got a damn clue."

The Marked Man fired another two rockets down the stairs, they exploded nearby but the staircase shielded them from the blast.

Floyd motioned for Gaz to cover him, and he slipped out from behind cover and charged up the stairs. Despite his bloody leg wound, Floyd nimbly sprinted up the steps. The Courier could feel and hear the blood sloshing around in his boot. He if he could get close to the Marked Man, then the Man couldn't use his rocket launcher without getting hit with his own explosion. Floyd was thoroughly shocked when he reached the top step and found himself looking down the tube of the RPG. The Marked Man was only 4 yards away, he knew he would be in the blast radius but didn't seem to care. The skin-stripped man smiled with what was left of his lips and squeezed the trigger on his rapid fire RPG. Nothing happened. The Marked Man realized he was out of ammunition and frantically tried to reload. He opened the hinged tube and pulled out the empty cylinder of rockets and reached for a fresh one. Floyd drew his found Bowie Knife and slashed him across the chest, causing the man to drop the RPG. Floyd reared his arm back and sliced him again from the opposite direction across his belly. The Marked Man doubled over in pain and turned his back to run away. Floyd grabbed his neck from behind and drove the blade into the center of the man's back and into his heart. The tip burst out the center of his chest and Floyd pulled the knife back out

"NEVER. TURN YOUR BACK. ON YOUR OPPONET!" Floyd bellowed

Gaz had witnessed the whole thing, such display of brutality would have normally made her feel something for the enemy. But seeing the Marked Man's suffering end almost made her feel good. It was this feeling that she hated the most.

Floyd wiped the blood off his blade and took a seat on some old shipping crates stamped with U.S. Military markings. Gaz took a seat next to him and stared at the body. The man's smile was still on his lifeless and skinless face, it was a smile that welcomed death. She stood up and looked around, the Man's rapid fire RPG looked like it was a prototype of the U.S. military. She picked up one of the rockets and examined it

"Lets see… 20 millimeter high velocity rockets… Makes up for its low damage with a high rate of fire."

She continued to look through the rooftop as Floyd treated his wound. Sitting on one of the crates was a green energy pistol. It didn't look like anything she had seen before. She picked it up and tossed it to Floyd.

"I think I found your detonator." She said and coughed violently

Floyd examined it "How does it work?"

"Point and shoot I guess."

Floyd pointed it into the air and pulled the trigger. A rapid fire beam of red light shot out.

"Interesting…"

He set the detonator down and looked at the twisted shard of shrapnel in his leg. The stimpack had stopped the bleeding but it hurt every time he moved his leg. He pulled a doctors bag out of his pack and got to work. He bit his lip as he pulled the shard out, he could hear its serrated edge tearing at his leg tissue. After he had pulled the shard out he took a pair of tweezers and pulled out the little bits of fabric and cloth that had been dragged into the wound upon impact then sealed the wound with another stimpack.

"That'll have to do for now."

Gaz meanwhile was beginning to feel painfully nauseous. Her innards felt like they were on fire. She hunched over and puked again and coughed. The dizziness was coming in strong. Floyd limped over to her and examined her. Her skin was an ugly shade of pale grey and her eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed. Floyd frowned

"Gaz… I think you might have radiation sickness."

Before they had a chance to assess her situation, two flares shot into the air from behind a broken building. They could hear the indistinct shouting of men, their voices sounded hoarse. Roughly ten Marked Men came running out from behind the rubble and charged forwards towards Gaz and Floyd. All hell broke loose as gunfire erupted through the Divide. Another flare went streaking through the sky and struck Floyd in the abdomen. The flaming canister lit his chest plate on fire, Floyd cursed and snuffed the flame out with his bare hands. While he was distracted with the fire, another Marked Man raised a beaten up hunting rifle and shot him again. It must have been an armor piercing round since it flew clean through his armor without even slowing down. Gaz placed the shooter's torso in her crosshairs and punched a 5 centimeter hole through his chest. She rechambered a new round and sighted a new target. This time it was the Marked Man with the flare gun. The two made eye contact through the scope, the Marked Man pointed his flare gun at her and she instantly squeezed the trigger. Surprisingly she had missed; the dizziness had once again thrown off her aim and the round hit the wall behind him. The Marked Man fired his flare gun and the flare bounced off her Power armor and careened off into the buildings. Floyd sealed the bullet wound with a stimpack and opened fire with his Automatic Rifle, cutting down the Marked Man armed with the flare gun. He then redirected his attention to the other Marked Men and laid down suppressive fire, a hail of .308 rounds ripped apart another two of the flayed fighters. A 5.56 round stuck him in his already wounded leg and but he continued to fire. Even ED-E flew into the fight, he came in at high speed and zapped one of the Marked Men to little effect. Gaz was struggling to keep balance at this point. She steadied her Gauss Rifle on a ledge and sighted another target. The Marked Men's armor composed of tattered rags and worn down ballistics plates offered no protection from the anti-armor rounds. Her next shot grazed her target and it took another shot to bring him down. Gaz began to uncontrollably dry-heave. She put her rifle down and gagged and coughed. Floyd saw her in pain but couldn't divert his attention away from the Marked Men. The sputnik-like robot saw Gaz suffering and immediately flew away, back towards the bunker entrance.

"Where you going?! Get back here you little flying trashcan!" Floyd yelled but ED-E paid no attention

Without the help of Gaz or ED-E, Floyd suddenly felt very alone. He picked up the strange looing RPG and loaded a new canister of rockets. He peered into the aiming screen and placed the crosshairs in the middle of the group of Marked Men, then opened fire. It was like a portable artillery strike, rocket after rocket raining down on the unfortunates below. The rapid succession of explosions tossed the flayed soldiers into the air like ragdolls. Those who didn't have the good fortune of dying had limbs broken or blown off. When the RPG was empty he dropped it and cocked back the slide on his Tommy gun. A seriously wounded Marked man was limping up the steps; his torso had hundreds of pieces of broken glass embedded in the exposed muscle and his right arm had been broken and twisted beyond use or recognition. He had a rusty knife in his left arm and raised it when he saw Floyd. The Courier mowed him down and kept moving, determined to escape but also to put these men out of their misery. Another mortally wounded Marked Man came charging forward with an industrial arch welder. The shrapnel from Floyd's rocket barrage had torn open his abdomen and his entrails were dangling out. He fired an arch at the Courier, the arch instantly seared through Floyd's chest plate like a red hot knife through paper. Floyd clenched his teeth and shot back. The final Marked Man dropped his Service Rifle and spread his arms apart, as if he was inviting Floyd to shoot him. Floyd lowered his SMG and stared at the Marked Man, the Marked man stared back with bloodshot eyes.

"I'm sorry…" Floyd said and squeezed the trigger

After the bloody skirmish with the Marked Men, Floyd rushed up to Gaz. Her unconscious body was lying in a pool of her own vomit. Floyd knew she wouldn't last much longer breathing the Divide's contaminated air. He put his arms around her and tried to pick her up. The combined weight of her Gauss rifle and Power Armor made this impossible; even worse was his wounded leg which was struggling to support his own weight. Thinking quickly, he took her Gauss Rifle, her Marksman carbine, all of his explosives and all of his survival equipment and stashed it away in a military shipping crate to decrease his weight. Anything nonessential he dropped, even a few bottles of purified water. He tried to remove her power armor too, but couldn't figure out how to take it off. Suddenly ED-E reappeared, he flew up to Walker and opened his storage compartment. Inside was a breathing mask with a fresh filter on both sides. He slipped the breathing mask over Gaz's mouth and nose turned to the robot

"…Thanks. That was actually some good thinking. Now I need your help getting Gaz out of here, if we run into more of those things, I'll need you to distract them. Got it?"

The robot beeped in response

"I hope that means yes…"

He took three deep breaths and injected a MedX syringe into his wound to dull the pain. Fueled by chems and adrenaline, he picked Gaz up and put her over his shoulder. The weight of the power armor made it feel like he was carrying three other people on his back. With a bad limp, Walker carried her down the stairs and then began to make his way back to the safety of the Mojave.


	3. A Deadly Game of Cat and Mouse

_The harsh winds of Alaska blew a gust of ice particles and snow into Gaz's face. She shivered and rubbed her hands together, then paced back and forth in her trench to make sure the hydraulic fluid in her power armor's joints and servos didn't freeze and lock up. It wasn't the constant threat of a Chinese attack that she hated the most; she hated the fact that she wasn't issued winterized Power Armor more. Guard duty had always been like this, long nights of scanning the vast Alaskan wilderness for threats. She almost felt like her skills were going to waste and she wasn't getting the recognition she deserved, after all, it was her who had killed General Jingwei. Every so often the thump of a massive cliff side howitzer echoed through the night, it didn't even phase her anymore. She wiped the frost off her Gauss rifle scope and peered into the telescopic sight. She scanned through the collection of pine trees and over a frozen lake. Suddenly she stopped and focused on the trees. She saw the shadow of a man cast dark over the pure white snow, but not the person casting the shadow. The Chinese Stealth suits concealed the wearer in a bending light, but it didn't conceal the wearer's silhouette or hide the footprints made in the snow. She placed the crosshairs over the silhouette and fired. A spray of crimson blood splattered over the snow. A flash of light and a crackle of electricity revealed a dead Chinese soldier in the advanced stealth suit. The large caliber hole in his chest steamed in the bitter cold. She shook her head and sighed, the nightly counter attacks from the Chinese had doubled since Jingwei's death . Suddenly her radio squawked to life._

" _Lt. Patterson, come in. I heard a gunshot is everything ok?"_

" _Situation normal, sir. It was another Crimson Dragoon, I recommend you send out a search and destroy squad to look for his buddies." She said_

" _Very good. Very good… Listen Lieutenant, I have some one here who is very eager to talk to you. His name is General Martin Retslaf. You are hereby dismissed from guard duty and are to report to directly to my tent."_

" _Yes sir!" She said into her radio and climbed out of her trench._

" _Thank Christ for that…" She said to herself and shivered_

 _She walked into the outpost and over to her C.O.'s tent. She pulled back the tent flap._

" _You wanted to see me sir?"_

" _Yes come inside! You're letting all the heat out!"_

 _She stepped in and was greeted by a much needed blast of warm air. Inside was her commanding officer and a Three Star General who she had never met._

" _Will you be needing anything else, General Retslaf?" Her C.O. asked_

" _No. Major, dismissed." The General said and turned to Gaz_

" _Hello Lieutenant. I see Alaska is treating you well." He said watching the ice and snow melt off her armor and pool at the floor_

 _She looked up at him. He was a middle aged, clean and crew cut. He had bleached white teeth, a Florida tan and wore a fine silk scarf. She knew right off the bat this man had never seen combat once in his life._

" _It's uh… It's an honor sir." She said_

" _First off I'd like to commend you for taking out Jingwei, I saw the whole thing from a security camera feed."_

" _Thank you sir." She said, it felt good to finally get recognized for her actions_

" _Let's cut the formalities and cut right to the chase; How'd you like to be transferred back down south? I have a position available for you in a Military Research Base, which is located just an hour away from your hometown Salt Lake City. Interested?" General Retslaf asked_

 _Gaz's face lit up like a pinball machine "You're damn right I am! Uh… I mean, Yes Sir! I just have one question, what is the position?"_

 _The General smiled and flashed his pearly white teeth. "Tell me Lieutenant, have you ever hear of something called Biostasis?"_

Gaz suddenly woke up from her prewar dream, the sound of gunshots had pulled her from the radiation induced blackout. She realized Floyd was carrying her with one arm and was shooting with his other. She felt too weak and too nauseous to help him though. She could feel them watching her and Floyd from the shadows, planning their next move and setting up ambushes. Every so often she'd see something moving in the corner of her eye, but it was gone when she tried to focus on it. She closed her eyes and passed back out. Floyd however was wide awake. After their first skirmish, the Marked Men switched tactics and began to attack from a distance instead of close up. Harassing them with sniper fire and rockets. Floyd stopped behind a crumbled wall for cover and gently put Gaz down. He injected another stimpak into his chest and another shot of MedX into his leg. Before continuing he pulled out a container of Steady and inhaled a large cloud of amphetamine vapor to help him aim. He peaked out over the wall to see if it was safe to continue. He saw a small flash in the distance; the reflection of sunlight off a rifle scope. Floyd didn't even hear the gunshot when a heavy caliber rifle round came within inches of hitting his head; he could hear it zipping by and even felt the wind off the bullet. He ducked down. Without a scoped rifle of his own, and without Gaz and her Gauss Rifle, he knew he was in for a tricky shot. The sniper was so far away, the threat scanner on his Pip Boy didn't even register him. This made the use of V.A.T.S impossible. He picked up a piece of broken glass and tried to use the reflection to spot the sniper from behind cover. As soon as he raised the glass, another rifle shot shattered it out of his hand, the pieces lacerated his fingers. This sniper was good. Walker cocked his 45-70 "Medicine Stick" rifle, it was the most accurate weapon he had but it still lacked a telescopic scope. The Courier and Sniper were now locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Walker looked around for something, he wasn't sure what; anything that could potentially be of use. An old plastic construction hard-hat was lying nearby, the Courier then got an idea. He grabbed the hard-hat and a piece of rebar and placed the hat on the steel rod. He raised the hat up and peeked around the wall to see if he could trick the Sniper into revealing his position. The Sniper took the bait and shot the hard-hat, mistaking it for Walker's head. Floyd saw the muzzle flash from the Sniper's rifle, he also saw the distinct outline of a person. Quickly; he stood up took aim and fired. He wasn't sure if he had hit him or not. He squinted and focused on where he had seen the persons outline. To his surprise, a silhouette stood up and he saw another muzzle flash. The round hit him on the edge of his chest and broke through Walker's quickly deteriorating armor. The damaged Desert Ranger armor had slowed the bullet and broke it apart into fragments of copper and lead. The bullet fragments embedded themselves between Walker's ribs. It knocked Floyd onto his back

"Get back up you son of a bitch… Get up!" He said to himself

He cringed as he injected yet another stimpack

"You've been shot before. Quit being such a pussy." He thought

He took three deep breaths, then stood back up and fired at the figure. He saw the silhouette jerk back as his bullet impacted. He racked the lever on his rifle and fired again, the figure doubled over. Floyd took a deep breath and held it in, then placed his rifle's front sight over his targets head, he aimed a little higher to compensate for bullet drop. Floyd slowly exhaled and squeezed the trigger, time slowed down. Despite being almost the length of a football field away, Floyd could swear the man was looking him in the eye. There was a puff of red mist where the man's head used to be and dark red splatter on the wall behind him. He slipped a few cartridges into the rifle's loading port and worked the leaver. The intense amount of radiation in the air was beginning to get to him too. Nausea was working its way into his stomach and he was starting to feel lightheaded.

"Keep it together. If you pass out now, then you and her are both dead…"

More MedX and more Stimpacks, with some RadX washed down with whisky. Drugs and chems were the only thing holding his radiation poisoned and badly wounded body together. He strained to pick Gaz back up and continued to press forward. His armor was badly damaged; the front chest plate had been hit so many times a crack had formed running across the full length of his torso. The Kevlar trench coat had been shot full of holes. The MedX had dulled the pain, but everything still hurt: Cracked ribs made it hard to breath, a wounded leg made it hard to run and to top it all off; he still had to carry Gaz. The skin beneath his armor was drenched in a combination of perspiration and blood. The service door to the bunker was now in sight, All he had to do now was get Gaz through the bunker and then they'd be home free. Floyd stopped to catch his breath, ED-E flew forward to scout ahead. The Courier carefully set Gaz down, she mumbled something and coughed.

"Just hang in there. We're almost out of here." Floyd said

He leaned over and puked, there was a few red streaks of blood in his vomit. ED-E suddenly flew up to him and beeped frantically.

"What the hell is the matter with you?"

The little robot beeped even more desperately.

"What? What does that mean? I can't understand you."

"He says…. He… Says…." Gaz wheezed, she had woken up and was looking at her Pip Boy threat scanner

"You're awake! Thank god! We have to get you-"

"FLOYD. Shut up and listen to me... ED-E says the Marked Men… The Marked Men are waiting for us at the bunker entrance…" She said in between dry heaves

Floyd nodded. He pulled Gaz's sleek black .45 auto out of her holster and cocked it for her, then placed it in her hand.

"If one gets close to you, you're gonna put two in his chest and one in his head. Got it?"

"You didn't need to tell me…" She said smiling

He loaded his Automatic Rifle with armor piercing rounds and cocked back the slide. Then charged forward to the bunker door. The Marked Men came out of their hiding places and began their attack. There was a total of seven Marked Men, two of them were armed with strange looking Gatling guns, they looked like a regular minigun but they were mounted on the shoulder. The other five had assault carbines, 10mm submachine guns, or laser rifles. They were all determined to keep Walker and Gaz from leaving the Divide alive. The two with the strange shoulder-mounted-machineguns quickly proved to be the biggest threat; the combined firepower of the two made a head on assault impossible. The shoulder mounted Gatling guns made a strange chugging sound when fired. Floyd ran in a zigzag pattern to throw their aim off. A beam from a laser rifle seared through his breastplate and burned his skin, Floyd blew the shooter apart with .308 armor piercing rounds and took cover. Floyd reached into his first aid kit an injected the next to his last stimpack. He then pulled out a syringe of psycho; a few years back he had made promise to himself to never use addictive chems again, but he desperately needed an extra boost. He slid the needle into the crook of his elbow and drained the fluid into his vein. A familiar feeling flooded into his head, a feeling that made it seem like the bullets would bounce off and his fears melt away. And then came the rage; the feeling of pure anger that made you a more ruthless fighter. A grenade was tossed over the wall he was hiding behind and landed at his feet, without hesitating he picked it up and tossed it right back. After he heard the explosion he stood up and ran towards the left flank of the Marked Men. The blast from their own grenade had disoriented them, it was just the distraction Walked wanted. He put the Automatic Rifle at hip level and ripped the trigger. They were tightly grouped together, the high-penetration rounds ripped through one Marked Man and lodged themselves in the man behind him. The shoulder-mounted-machine gunners swung their bulky weapons over at him but ED-E flew in to divert them. The little robot's energy weapon did hardly any damage but it did provide a much needed distraction. With a fresh clip of AP rounds, Walker slaughtered another two of the skinless attackers, one with an SMMG. ED-E had been hit a few times and peeled away to safety, his thruster leaked a black smoke. Walker raised his rifle to kill the other two, his rifle fired two more shots into a Marked man with an assault carbine but then it stopped before Floyd could kill him. The corrosive air of the Divide had caused his rifle's mechanism to jam and overheat. He dropped the overheated rifle and reached for his Thomson submachine gun, but the Marked Men were quicker. A three round burst from the SMMG tore through Walker's right arm, his armor was too badly damaged to stop the rounds. He dropped his tommy gun and fell down. His arm was crippled. One of the Marked Man put down the massive shoulder-mounted-machine gun and slipped an industrial hand; it looked like a power-fist with a saw blade. The other man clutched his wounds and pulled out a combat knife. Floyd limped backwards on the ground leaving a trail of blood, the Marked Men slowly walked after him. The saw blade on the industrial hand unfolded and began to spin in a high pitched whine.

"You have such nice skin… It looks so soft… so warm… I want it..." The man wheezed over the sound of the power saw

"Stay the fuck away from me!" Floyd said

"I want your skin!" He said and raised the spinning blade into the air

At that exact moment, Floyd felt a terror that he had never felt before. It wasn't the fact that he was about to get skinned alive, it was the fact that Gaz would be next. A .45 auto +P round suddenly went ripping through the Marked Man's neck, Gaz was standing at their right flank holding her customized pistol. The man clasped his hands over the bloody neck wound and struggled to breath. She shot him four more times in the chest before he finally fell. The other Marked Man rushed at her with the rusty combat knife, she shot him in the leg to slow him down and again in the chest.

"GIVE ME YOUR FUCKING SKIN!" He screamed with blood spraying out of his mouth.

The slide was locked back on her pistol indicating it was empty, Floyd drew his own .45 auto and fired at the man. His crippled arm shook uncontrollably but he managed to strike him twice and graze him on the third shot. Gaz hastily reloaded and together they emptied their pistols into the last Marked Man.

"How are you still standing?" Gaz said looking at the bloodied up Courier

"I could ask you the same thing…" Floyd said

She helped him up and together they staggered into the bunker. They walked through the prewar corridors, when one began to lose consciousness, the other would shake them to wake up. The pair struggled to get back through the base, when finally they reached the exit to the Canyon Wreckage. Before they could leave, ED-E beeped a few times and turned around.

"Where's… Where's he going?" Floyd said in-between inhales

"He says he can't leave. Forget about it… We need to keep moving…"

They stumbled out of the base service tunnel and back through the Canyon Wreckage. Once they were in the safety of the Mojave, Gaz collapsed to her knees and tore off the breathing mask puked again. Her nose was bleeding from both nostrils and had a thin line of blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. It was one of the worst cases of radiation poisoning Floyd had ever seen. She rolled on her back

"Floyd… If I turn into one of those ghouls… I want you to shoot me in the head…" She said as she lost consciousness

"You're gonna be just fine! You aren't going to turn… We'll get you some Rad Away and you'll be fine! Just fine…" Floyd said

Gaz's eyes rolled into the back of her head as she passed out. Floyd bit his lip, the truth was he didn't know if she'd be ok. Floyd wasn't sure what to do next, he hadn't planned that far ahead. The closest town was Primm, but that was still a half hour's hike away – for a healthy non-wounded person that is. He wanted to run to Primm and go get help but at the same time he didn't want to leave Gaz unconscious and by herself.

"Jesus Christ… Floyd… Are you ok?" Said a voice from behind him

Floyd spun around and shakily pulled out his .45 auto

"Easy! Easy! Easy! It's just me. It's Gannon."

Floyd let out a sigh of relief

"Arcade! You son of a bitch I have never been so happy to see you in my life! Help her! Please… Please help her…" Floyd said panting

Arcade prepared his medical kit and unlatched Gaz's tesla armor. He immediately injected a super concentrated tincture of anti-radiation medicine into her arm, then put her on a Rad Away I.V. drip.

"She got lucky this time… I have never seen a case of radiation sickness this bad." Gaz said and examined the rest of her body for wounds

"Why did she get so rad-sick and I only got a minor case? We both spent the exact amount of time in that contaminated air…" Floyd said

"You and I were born into a world of radiation and atomic fire… From our first breath, we inhaled small amounts of fallout and radiation, so over the years we developed a high tolerance to it. Gaz on the other hand grew up breathing clean prewar air, so the irradiated winds of the Divide must have caused her body to go into shock…" Gannon said and looked Floyd dead in the eye

"She CANNOT go back in there. Her body won't be able to handle it."

"This is all my fault…"

Gannon used a handkerchief to wipe away the blood from Gaz's mouth and nose, then turned to Floyd.

"It's not your fault, she insisted on going and there was no way you could have known this would have happened."

"There's no way I could have known… It's funny you should say that… That's what I keep telling myself about the Divide."

"You're next. Let me treat those wounds."

"Is she ok? Make sure she's ok first…"

"She's fine. She just needs Rad Away and rest."

"Oh thank god…"

Gannon smiled "I've never seen you care so much for someone…"

Floyd smiled and slipped off his shot up trench coat and unbuckled his armor. The cracked and dented ballistics plates fell off him. His undershirt was mostly red at this point, He stripped off the blood soaked shirt and tossed it on the ground. Gannon's jaw dropped when he saw the extent of Floyd's wounds.

"…How are you still walking upright?" Gannon said and spread out a blanket on the ground

Floyd took a seat and let Gannon get to work. He gave Floyd a blood pack to make up for blood loss and also an I.V. of Rad Away. He then began to pick out all the bits of shrapnel.

"Why were you still here? I thought you'd be back in Freeside by now." Floyd asked as Gannon plucked a deformed buckshot pellet out of his arm.

"I had a funny feeling about a longtime friend of mine…" Gannon said with a small grin

"I appreciate it…"

"I somehow knew one or both of you would need patching up, so I stayed close by. So now that you've seen this awful place first hand, are you willing to give up this pointless crusade?"

"Not even close, Gannon."

Gannon rolled his eyes

"Really? Can't you see there's nothing for you there? Not to mention, you're partner nearly DIED. Do you want this to happen again?"

"It won't happen again… I now know what I'm going up against; I know that the population of the Divide is mostly deranged, skin-stripped ghouls. I know that these things have a remarkable tolerance to pain. I know that they have a wide range of both close combat and ranged combat skills. And most importantly, I know more about Ulysses and that he's is panning something…"

"Planning what?"

"I don't know…"

"Hmm. Tell me; exactly how dangerous do you think Ulysses is?"

"In comparison to what? The bubonic plague? Cancer? He survived a knife slathered with bleak venom… Most people would die in a few seconds after that, but not him…"

"Most people would have died from a bullet to the head too. Don't you see how similar you two are?"

"Trust me Gannon; I am fully aware how similar we are… And that's what scares me the most."


	4. Back From Hell

_**Contrary to popular belief, I am in fact still alive. I'm really sorry about the LONG overdue wait, but I mean come on… Fallout 4 came out and with it came a massive decrease in real world productivity. Hope you guys understand**_

Floyd and Gannon carried an unconscious Gaz through the Mojave Wasteland on a stretcher they hastily put together made from old 2 by 4's and a musty blue tarp. The only source of light was the moon and starlight, the two had chosen not to use flashlights, for fear of attracting attention from Powder Gangers, Viper Gunslingers or worst of all; Legion Death Squads.

"How much farther till we reach Novac?" Gannon asked

"Just a couple of miles. There's a wasteland doctor there I know. She can treat her rad-sickness. Plus I have a weapons cache were I can re-arm and resupply."

"Why didn't we just go to Primm?"

"Primm is controlled by the NCR now. They'd probably find you and Gaz in Power Armor to be a little suspicious, and I'm not looking for another fight." Walker said

A long way off on the horizon was the unmistakable silhouette of the hollow T-Rex statue of Novac. Walker saw it and let out a sigh of relief. He glanced down at Gaz, her skin was slightly pale and grey and her eyes were still a little sunken. Gannon saw him looking over her

"You really do care about her, don't you?"

"Like you wouldn't believe… Most of the ladies I've been with would hate it when I embarked on an expedition into the wastes... Not only was she supportive of my endeavors, but I literally couldn't stop her from coming with me." Floyd said smiling

"You two are right for each other. Keep that in mind when you're alone in the divide…"

"Gannon… Enough with the anti-divide speech. I get it. But there is nothing you can do to stop me from entering the divide."

"Ok… But you should know-"

"GANNON. ENOUGH."

"You don't make this easy for me Floyd… I'll stop for now." Gannon said

"Thanks. I know you're doing this because you're trying to look out for me, but it's just something I need to do."

Gaz groaned in her radiation induced sleep and clutched her abdomen. Floyd frowned

"Let's get a move on."

They pressed on, determined to reach Novac before dawn. As they walked forward, Floyd began to develop a strange feeling in his gut. He had felt this feeling before, it was the feeling of someone watching him. He glanced down at his Pip-Boy but no threats were registered. That didn't satisfy him through, he slowed his pace and looked at his surroundings. Behind them was a wide open stretch of empty wasteland, there was nothing to hide behind so an attack from the rear was unlikely. But in front of them was a large and wide billboard, its prewar paint was cracked and pealing now. To the left of the billboard was a collection of boulders. There was plenty of hiding spaces ahead of them, Floyd frowned and gently set Gaz down. He drew his Automatic Rifle and cocked back the slide.

"What's wrong? Do you hear something?" Gannon asked

"No… And that's what makes me suspicious. Stay with Gaz and keep her safe. I'm gonna scout ahead."

Floyd advanced forward keeping low to the ground and avoided making any sort of noise. He felt a knot in his gut, a feeling he couldn't shake. As he neared the billboard he heard what sounded like whispers. He clicked the safety off his rifle, it make a soft metallic click. As soon as he took the safety off the rifle, a muzzle flash from a Marksman carbine lit up the path ahead, a 5.56mm bullet hit him in the chest plate of his rapidly deteriorating armor. Over 20 men came running out from behind the billboard, in the dim moon light Floyd was able to recognize their armor, it was crimson red and made from old sports equipment and Kevlar. This meant only one thing; they were Legion. Walker raised his Automatic Rifle and opened fire, gunning down two of the soldiers before breaking into a dead run back to Gannon. Gannon heard the gunfire and readied his plasma rifle

"Legion! 20 of em'!" Floyd yelled

The rapid crackle of light machineguns echoed into the night and three bullets ricocheted off Gannon's power armor.

"You carry Gaz, I'll cover you!"

Gannon put Gaz over his shoulder, the hydraulically assisted strength of his power armor made it seem effortless. Floyd opened up with his automatic rifle, firing in short three round bursts to maintain accuracy and to conserve ammunition. Normally a Legionary Death squad wouldn't pose much of a threat to him, but with Gaz out of commission and with Walker already wounded and running low on ammo, the Legion assassins suddenly seemed very real and dangerous. More gunshots rang out, bullets were cutting through the air all around them. They flanked around the assassins and made a run for Novac. For a minute, Walker through they would be able to outrun the Legionaries, but when he glanced behind them, he saw a large shadow gaining on him. The figure was armed with a Thermetic Lance which lit up the night sky when activated. He opened fire at the figure but his Automatic Rifle jammed. He drew his .45 and fired wildly at the figure, his wounded arm was still a little shaky and threw off his aim. A lucky shot to the knee cap instantly brought down the assassin.

"Go on! I'll distract them!" Walker said and readied his Tommy Gun.

Gannon charged forward and Floyd ripped the trigger on his SMG. In typical legion fashion, the assassins completely ignored their comrade's deaths before their very eyes and pressed forward. The Thompson submachinegun clicked empty, and Floyd broke into a dead run towards Novac. He was pretty sure he had killed maybe five of them, but that still left fifteen more. He still had a few rounds left in his "Medicine Stick" brush gun. He cocked the lever and spun around, shouldered the rifle at an assassin and fired. The big-game rifle round struck him in the gut but didn't kill him. Walker chambered a new round and shot another one in the head, dropping him like a bag of bricks. Another 5.56mm round struck him in the chest, he heard the armored plate snap in half as the bullet impacted. His Desert Ranger combat armor was now damaged so badly it was practically useless. The Legion assassins fired wildly at him and he could hear their insults as he ran.

"Prepare to join the Burned Man!" One of them yelled

Upon hearing this, Floyd turned around and killed the assassin who disrespected Joshua. He then broke into another run and caught up with Gannon. The two were nearly out of ammunition and Walker's armor was now more of a burden than actually being useful. Floyd wasn't sure what to do next, when suddenly a single gunshot echoed through the night sky. A single .308 caliber bullet went whistling through one of the legionnaire's head's in a gory explosion. Gannon looked at Floyd

"Was that you?"

"No…"

Another shot rang out and another Legionary dropped dead. The legionaries were just as confused as Walker and Gannon. A third shot rang out and cut down a third assassin. Floyd and Gannon took the opportunity to sight new targets and fire. One of the assassins was looking off in the distance, trying to spot the source of the sniper fire. Gannon took the opportunity to nail him with three shots from his plasma rifle, melting him into goo. Every time an assassin would try to flank them, a far off gunshot would strike them down before they could get close. Walker pulled the pin to a grenade and hurled it into the group of assassins. One of them picked the grenade up and attempted to throw it back, but the mysterious far-off sharpshooter shot the grenade while the assassin was still holding it and it detonated in his hand. The resulting explosion scattered and disoriented the remaining assassins. Floyd and Gannon took the opportunity pick off a few of the wounded assassins then picked up Gaz and ran like hell for Novac. Floyd looked at mouth of the T-Rex statue, he squinted his eyes and noticed the reflection of moonlight off a rifle scope, then a bright muzzle flash of a hunting rifle. Floyd smiled; he knew an old friend of his was looking out for them. The sharpshooter in the T-Rex statue continued picking off assassins, providing some much needed cover for Gannon , Gaz and Walker. Finally the shooting stopped, Floyd let out a sigh of relief and caught his breath as he and Gannon slowed their pace to a walk. As they neared the T-Rex, they heard a deep and authoritative voice.

"HALT!" The voice ordered

Gannon looked at Floyd

"Relax. I'll do the talking." Floyd said

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE! I'm coming down." The voice said

Floyd and Gannon stood still, Floyd kneeled down and made sure Gaz wasn't hit. A man wearing old NCR bandolier armor and a distinct red beret came walking out of the statue and out Novac's gate. He was armed with a .308 scoped hunting rifle, which he had raised at waist level with a round in the chamber and the safety off. Floyd smiled, but before he could speak the man leveled his rifle at them

"Don't move. Why are they wearing Power Armor? Are you guys part of the Brotherhood of Steel?" The man asked while keeping the rifle trained on Gannon's head

"Boone. Come on man you know me! And you know who Gannon is. Just put the rifle down and we can talk." Floyd said

"I'm sorry Floyd, but I can't take any risks. Gannon, tell me the truth: Are you part of the Brotherhood of Steel?" Boone said calmly

"No." Gannon said

"Then where did you learn how to operate power armor?"

Gannon was quiet for a minute, then said "My father was former Enclave. He taught me."

Boone lowered the rifle and exhaled "I'm sorry about that. The NCR has reports of Brotherhood of Steel Paladins walking the wastes. I didn't believe them at first. The NCR killed off the majority of them, I can't even fathom how they could resurface after all these years…"

"Well thanks for not shooting first and asking questions later. More importantly, thanks for keeping us covered"

Boone chuckled "I always have your back, Pretty-Boy-Floyd. Who is she?" He said looking at the unconscious Gaz

"Her name is Gaz Patterson. She's my lady-friend."

"She looks pale and irradiated. Let's get her some medical attention." Boone said and helped carry Gaz into the safety of Novac.

They brought her into the tent of the wasteland doctor, known as Dr. Ada Straus. The doctor was sleeping on a cot when Boone, Floyd and Gannon brought Gaz in. Floyd nudged her,

"Hey Doc, we got somebody who needs treating real bad. Can you help us out?"

Straus groaned and slowly opened her eyes, then looked at Floyd and Gaz

Straus was quiet for a moment then said "She can wait until morning" and closed her eyes

Floyd rolled his eyes and jingled a bag of caps near her ear

Straus sighed "Ok I'll put her on a Rad Away I.V. drip. Is that all?" Straus said handing a container of high-powered Rad-Away to Floyd

"Yeah that's all."

Boone took them to the motel-room that served as his house, they put Gaz on the bed and hooked her up to the I.V. Boone then opened his refrigerator and took out a few beers. He handed one to Floyd and Gannon, then sat down in an old arm chair.

"So Floyd… You want to tell me why you and her look like you've been through hell and back?" Boone said twisting off the cap on his beer

"We pretty much did, It is a long story…"

"You want to give me the short version?"

"There's a courier I'm familiar with, calls himself Ulysses. He uh… He…" Floyd's voice broke a little

"What's wrong?"

"He killed Joshua…"

"Oh God, Floyd I'm so sorry."

"I'm not finished, he's in a place called The Divide now. It's an irradiated hell hole, I've never seen anything like it."

"The Divide… To the west of Primm right? The NCR sent in a few Rangers recon, they never came back. "

"I don't doubt it. I also know Ulysses is planning something."

"Planning what?"

"Something big Boone. Something big."

Floyd opened his beer

"If you want to hear the long version, then talk to Gannon."

"Well shit… When are we leaving to go get this guy?" Boone said

"You aren't coming with me. None of you are.

"Why the hell do you want to go in there alone?" Boone said

Walker wanted to tell him it was because Hopeville and Ashton were his fault, he wanted to tell him it was because he didn't want any more people to die because of him. But instead he said

"This is something I need to do myself. Plus I need you to stay behind and make sure Gaz doesn't try to follow me."

"I can do that. I trust you'll also be needing access to your stash?"

"Oh yeah."

Floyd gulped down his beer, then he and Boone pulled back the carpet on the floor revealing a trap door. They opened it, and the smell of oil and gunpowder came wafting out.

"There you go Walker, untouched since your last visit."

"Thanks Boone. I'd love to stay a little longer, but after I resupply I'm leaving." Floyd said

As Gannon filled Boone in on the events of the Enclave Uprising and the Battle of the Grand Canyon, Floyd climbed down the trap door down and flicked a light switch and a dim orange light filled the room. Countless weapons and ammunition containers lined the walls. Floyd took off his back pack and got to work re-arming. His brush-gun was a good rifle, but the fact that it lacked a telescopic scope made it obsolete. He exchanged the lever action rifle for something much bigger and longer range; a .50 caliber anti-material rifle. The heavy caliber rifle had been modified by Floyd with an extended 10 round clip, a custom action and a carbon-fiber stock and fore grip to reduce weight. He also grabbed 100 normal .50 cal rounds, 20 armor piercing rounds, 20 incendiary rounds, and 20 explosive rounds. He then picked up a few bricks of plastic explosive and a detonator, then equipped himself with a riot shotgun with a big drum magazine and 200 shotgun slugs along with it. Then came the issue of his armor, the Kevlar woven fabric had been shredded from the amount of times it had been hit, the armor plating had shattered and the entire suit was splattered with blood, Floyd wasn't sure if it was his blood or that of past enemies, probably both. He grabbed a relatively good condition suit of Mark 2 combat armor off the wall and stripped the shot-up rag of Ranger Armor. After putting of the new suit and resupplying on ammo and stimpacks, Floyd took one last look around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. He thought about taking a minigun for the extra firepower, but it would have been too heavy and bulky so he left it. He then spotted a relic of the past hanging on his wall; an old M1 Grand rifle giving to him after helping the NCR find a spy in their ranks. Carved into the stock was the phrase "This Machine." He grabbed the M1 Grand and climbed back up upstairs. He handed the rifle to Gannon

"Give this to Gaz when she wakes up"

"Why does it say 'This Machine' on the stock?"

"Because That Machine was used to kill communists , she probably used one before."

He leaned over Gaz and gave he a kiss one the forehead

"I'm heading out now boys. But before I do I want you to promise me you won't let her follow me."

"You have my word."

"Mine to."

"Thanks guys. And take care of her if… uh… Never mind. I'll be back in a couple weeks."

After shaking hands with his old friends, Floyd took a deep breath and headed out the door. His heart was racing, he wasn't sure if he would be able to do this alone, but he knew one way or another, he had to finish what he started.


	5. Return To Sender

Gaz's head was pounding and her stomach was in knots when she finally awoke. It was the sort of migraine and sickness associated with a hangover; dizziness, throbbing and extreme nausea, except much more intense. She opened her eyes; she was lying on a bed in a strange room she had never been inside before, it sort of looked like a hotel room. Sitting on an armchair near the bed was a half-asleep man wearing a red beret and what looked like a military uniform. She wasn't sure who he was or how she had got there, and to make things worse Floyd was nowhere in sight. Her pistol was on a nightstand; ever so slowly she reached for it. The man glanced up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes

"Oh good you're awake." He said and stood up

She instantly grabbed the pistol and leveled it at his head

"Whoa there! Just let me explain-"

"Who are you!? And how the hell did I get here?!" She said

"Cool down, I think you might still be in shock. My name is Boone, I'm a friend of Floyd-"

"Floyd! Where is he?!"

"I was just getting to that. Can you please put the gun down? Or put it on safe?"

"Where's Floyd?!"

"Goddamn it. Gannon! Get in here and calm her down!"

Gannon walked in from the next room over, he was out of his power armor and wearing his normal lab coat.

"It's five o'clock in the morning. Why is everyone yelling?" He said half-asleep, then noticed Gaz holding Boone at gunpoint

"Gaz! Jesus Christ put that down! This is Boone, we are currently in his house, can you please not point that thing at our very generous host?"

Gaz looked at Boone and sheepishly grinned, Boone looked unamused. She put the .45 back in her holster, it was like waking up from stasis all over again.

"I'm uh… I'm real sorry about that. You have a lovely home."

"There ain't nothin' lovely about it."

"Boone, be nice. She's still in shock and survival mode." Gannon said

Suddenly Gaz's stomach churned and a strong wave of nausea came over her. She leaned over the side of the bed. Boone quickly slid a garbage can over to her

"Not on my floor."

Gaz puked into the can, leaving the bitter taste of bile in her mouth. Gannon handed her a bottle of water

"You're dehydrated from the puking. Drink up and I guarantee you'll feel better."

Gaz downed the water, taking a drink had never felt so good before. It made her feel bad about all the water she had wasted before the war

"Where's Floyd?"

Gannon and Boone looked at each other, Boone sighed

"There isn't any easy way to tell you this…"

"Oh god is he dead?!" Gaz exclaimed

"No! No he's not dead, he left." Boone said

Gaz nodded "To The Divide?"

"Yeah…"

Gaz was quiet of a minute

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!" She suddenly yelled, both Gannon and Boone jumped at her explosion of anger. She stood up, but Gannon and Boone blocked her way

"Look Gaz, it's for your own good."

"Get out of the way Gannon." She said through her teeth

"Gaz! Listen to me! You literally CANNOT go into The Divide!"

"And why the hell not?!"

"Your body can't handle the radiation. You'll go into shock, pass out and die of radiation sickness like you almost did last time."

"And Floyd's body can?" She said confused

"Yes! Because he was born after the war. Floyd, Boone and myself have a much better tolerance to radiation because we grew up breathing irradiated air. You grew up breathing clean, prewar air, as a result, you can't handle the air of The Divide." Gannon explained

"What about a breathing mask? And anti-radiation chems?" She asked eagerly

"For a while you'd be ok, but after certain point you'd be in trouble, like potential cancer later on in life. Not to mention, he made Boone and I promise not to let you follow him."

Gaz sighed "…Ok…Ok. Boone thanks for the hospitality. And I'm sorry about the gun in your face."

Boone cracked a small but noticeable smile.

"Oh, and before I forget, Floyd wanted you to have this." Gannon sad picking up the M1 Grand rifle and handed it to her

"Ah the M1 Grand, powerful and accurate. I used one just like it in Alaska before I was issued power armor." She said and glanced down at the trap door leading to Floyd's weapons stash

"What's down there?" She asked

"Walker's supply cache."

"Mind if I take a look down there?" She asked

"Why?"

"Oh I duuno. I guess I want to see what kind of trophies Floyd has accumulated over the years."

Boone shrugged "Sure. I doubt Floyd will mind."

Gaz smiled and nodded, then climbed down the stairs. She turned on the light and almost gasped at the amount of firepower lining the walls. She then smiled and got to work, the real reason she wanted to see Floyd's supply room was to re-arm and re-supply before she when tracking down Floyd. She saw the minigun Floyd had left behind and mounted it on her back, her power armor eased the weight. She picked up a few ammo boxes for it then looked at Floyd's collection of pistols. She looked at the large caliber hunting revolvers and the one-handed submachineguns but they didn't seem to have the amount of firepower she wanted. She then noticed a 12.7mm pistol on the rack. Floyd had taken the Survivalist Rifle, so she had a surplus of 12.7mm rounds. She picked up the big-bore semi-automatic pistol, it had black synthetic grips and a flat black finish. It also had the name "Lil' Devil" etched into the side. She grabbed an extra holster and strapped the heavy pistol onto her left hip. It perfectly complimented her sleek black .45 auto pistol given to her by Joshua. She then raided Floyd's medical stash, taking the remaining stimpacks, and all the RadX and RadAway and also a breathing mask. After picking up all the ammo she could carry she climbed back up to the main room. Gannon and Boone were standing at the front door, as if they had been expecting her. Boone frowned

"Whatcha doing with all that firepower?" he said

Gaz sighed "Get out of my way, I appreciate the hospitality, but I need to catch up to him."

"Gaz you know we can't let you do that. What am I supposed to tell Floyd if he comes back and you aren't here?" Gannon said

Gaz though for a minute "You can tell him I pulled a gun on you…"

"Wait what?"

In a heartbeat, both of Gaz's pistols were out of their holsters. She pointed her new 12.7mm pistol at Gannon and her .45 auto at Boone.

"Oh come on now, that is the second time you've pointed that thing at me within 20 minutes! In my own house to!" Boone said

"And I am very sorry about that. But you need to let me go."

Gannon raised his eyebrow

"Seriously Gaz?"

"Seriously Gannon."

Gannon took a step forward "Gaz, I've know you and traveled with you long enough to know you won't actually shoot me. Now put it down." He said and took another step

Gaz knew he was right, but wasn't going to let him stop her from tracking down Floyd. She reared her arm back and pistol whipped Gannon across the jaw. He stumbled back and cursed

"OW! Goddamn it! What the fuck Gaz?!"

"Oh god Gannon I am so sorry! That was supposed to knock you out!"

"Knock me out? You don't hit someone in the jaw to knock them out! You hit them in the back or side of the head! God that frigging hurts!"

"Oh…" she said and reared back again and clocked him on the side of the head. Gannon dropped to the floor

Gaz turned to Boone. Boone put his fists up like he was about to fight her

"Are you really trying to fist-fight someone in power armor?" Gaz said

Boone put his firsts down and stepped out of the way. "Think about what you're doing…" Boone said as she walked by

"I am. And again, REALLY sorry about the gun. I'll make it up to you though! Both of you!"

"And how are you going to do that?" Boone said

"I'll bring back Floyd, alive."

Boone smiled

"Alright then. But don't spend too much time in hot zones. The radiation will cook you like a turkey."

Gaz smiled and took off out Novac's gate

Boone helped Gannon back to his feet

"That girl's got a left hook like you wouldn't believe." Gannon said rubbing his jaw

Boone shook his head "Floyd has really gotta stop dating crazy chicks…"

Gannon nodded "Crazy? Yes… But what she did was also really sweet though."

Gaz rushed out the gate and kept moving until she couldn't see the lights of Novac. She typed in the coordinates to the Divide into her Pip-Boy and used the maps in her wrist mounted computer to navigate back to the Canyon Wreckage. She was burning with anger, she felt as if Floyd had abandoned her even if it was for her own good. She clenched her fists and ground her teeth as she speedily walked down the crumbling moonlight road, half of her wanted to give Floyd a big hug and kiss the next time she saw him. The other half of her wanted to punch him in the face. She figured Floyd had about a day's lead on her so she had to move fast and avoid resting until she caught up. The first rays of the early morning sun had just begun to peek above the horizon, and they illuminated the rusted out bodies of cars and an old semi-truck which littered the road. As she approached the rusty semi-truck, she heard a voice coming from behind her

"Where'd you get the Power Armor?" The voice said, it sounded like a young man

Gaz turned around and saw a lone figure standing behind her. It was a young man, late teens or maybe early twenties, he was wearing a suit of perfect condition recon armor and was armed with a laser rifle. Strangely enough, he was also wearing an advanced Pip-Boy

"I just asked you a question. Where'd you get the Armor? You find that Armor? You steal that Armor? Where'd you get the armor?"

"I'm sorry… But who the hell are you?" Gaz said

"Answer my question." The man said

"You first." Gaz said, getting annoyed

The man raised his Laser rifle.

"I said ANSWER MY QUESTION!" The man demanded

"No I don't think I will. Who are you? You aren't wearing a dress or red sporting equipment, so you're not Legion, you're clearly not NCR and I know you're not Enclave, because I helped disband them." Gaz said, she was proud of herself for being able to make those distinctions. She then took a few steps towards the man

"Stay where you are!" He demanded

"Or what? You'll shoot me with that weak-sauce laser rifle? That won't even leave a dent in my armor. Now this is a REAL rifle." She said and drew her M1 Grand and cocked it

"Drop your weapon!" He said and stepped back

"No. You drop yours." She said and pointed the rifle at his chest

He dropped the laser rifle, then hit a button of his Pip-Boy

"I've been compromised! I repeat I've been compromised!" he said into what looked like a microphone

"Who are you talking-" Gaz wasn't able to finish her sentence when she saw ten other men in recon armor and power armor all converge on her location, they pulled used Stealth-Boys off their wrists as they came out of hiding. Several of the men in power armor were armed with miniguns, which were spinning and pointed at her. The man picked back up his laser rifle

"It's over Patterson. We got you now." He said and pulled a rag and a bottle of chloroform out of his pocket

He slowly approached her and began to unscrew the lid on the chloroform.

"One little whiff of this and you'll be out cold. Now put the gun down and get ready to take your medicine." He said

Gaz placed the rifle on the ground but once he was close enough she lunged at him and wrestled the bottle of chloroform out of his hands. She stood back up and smashed the bottle on the ground in a show of defiance. The man looked at the broken bottle, then back at her. She had a cocky, rebellious grin across her face

"What the hell are you smiling for? Now we're gonna have to do this the old fashion way…" He said and slipped a pair of brass knuckles on

"Hey wait a minute…" Gaz said but it was too late

The man hit her on the side of the head with the brass and instantly she was out cold.


	6. Why We Fight

Gaz's head was pounding and her hair was matted down with dried blood. There was a burlap sack over her head obstructing her vision and she could feel two people holding her up by her shoulders and dragging her. She heard a mechanical door open in front of her which meant she was inside. She then heard a voice, it sounded like the man who knocked her out

"We have her right here sir. Just as you asked."

She then heard another voice, this voice was also a man and he evidently sounded annoyed.

"Why are you dragging her?" He said

"She gave us trouble, I had to knock her out."

"You knocked her out? And you put a bag over her head? Can she even breath with that thing on? Take it off right now." The voice ordered

Gaz kept her eyes shut and pretended to still be unconscious

"That's her alright. Why is her hair all bloody?"

"I um… Hit her."

"Goddamn it! I specifically said no physical force! Just put her in the chair."

Gaz felt the people lift her up and set her in a metal seat. Gaz slightly opened her eyes, she was sitting in front of a desk, a man with white hair and clad in a grey robe was sitting behind the desk. In her peripheral vision she could see two men in recon armor standing at each of her sides. One on them placed her backpack and weapons on the desk in front of her, her new 12.7mm pistol looked like it was within arm's reach.

"She had these on her when we brought her in."

The white-haired man picked up her .45 pistol and examined it

"Interesting, .45 auto, leather grips, and a Latin phrase engraved on the side… This pistol was obviously made by a New Canaanite… I thought the Canaanites were killed off by the White Legs."

As soon as he put the .45 auto down, Gaz sprang forward and grabbed the black 12.7mm pistol. The two men in recon armor pointed laser rifles at her

"No! hold your fire!" The man in robes ordered

Gaz jumped over the desk and grabbed the man by the neck. She pulled him in front of her and placed the large bore pistol on his temple.

"You don't want to do this." The man said

Gaz pressed the pistol into his temple "You think I won't?"

"Oh I don't doubt you will. And to be honest after everything you've been through, I wouldn't blame you if you did. But I have one question before you blow my head off…"

"And what the hell is that?"

"What do you plan on doing after you kill me? You're currently in a medium sized underground military base, full of power armored troopers and automated security. You plan on just walking out of here?"

"That's fine. You can be my hostage."

"Look I'd be furious too if that jackass sucker punched me." He said pointing to the man who had knocked her out "But I really need to talk to you. I know you must feel like the unluckiest person in the world right now, but you should understand… The future of the Wasteland depends on it."

"Why should I believe anything you say?"

The man sighed "You two! Drop your weapons and get the hell out of here." He said to the two guards

They looked at each other and placed their laser rifles on the floor and walked out the door. Gaz still kept a tight grip on him even after the metal door slid shut

"See? You're in control here. It's just you and me, why don't you have a seat and we can talk." He said motioning to a couple of chairs

Gaz slowly loosened her grip, she had left a handprint shaped bruise on his neck. He kept his hands up and took a seat, Gaz remained standing and kept her pistol pointed at his chest.

"Please, have a seat."

"I'm just fine standing, thanks, now speak." She said, her face was as blank and expressionless as a slab of limestone

"My name is Elder McNamara of The Brotherhood of Steel, and to begin I'd actually like to thank you."

"Thank me for what?"

"Eliminating the last remnants of the Enclave."

"How in the hell did you know about that."

"We had a deep cover agent embedded within their ranks. You fought alongside him during the Fort Tuthill revolt. I saw the whole thing through his helmet cam… Now, lets get down to the brass tacks: I know about Ulysses, I know all about you and I know a little bit about Walker."

"Oh really…

"Our recon teams, observed you and Walker head into the Divide, I'm not sure why Walker has a such personal vendetta against Ulysses, but he could prove himself to be useful. Lt. Patterson, are you aware what the Hopeville and Ashton military bases where built for?"

"It was a strategic missile defense base."

"Correct, when Walker delivered that dreadful package to Hopeville, it detonated a large number of nuclear warheads beneath the surface." McNamara said

Gaz rolled her eyes "Yes I know, what's your point?"

"There are still a large number of warheads still active and in their silos. We have evidence to believe that Ulysses is in possession of an access code capable of launching them. They might be aimed at NCR territory, maybe Legion, we don't know. Lt. Patterson, you may have been spared the atomic fire that scorched the Earth all those years ago… But if Ulysses succeeds, you will see the horror first hand. Everyone will."

"What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking you to link up with Walker in the Divide, find Ulysses, and stop a second Doomsday from happening."

"I was already going into the Divide to track down Walker and help him stop Ulysses already. That's where I was headed when your goons kidnapped me! If you want me to help you then stop wasting my time and let me go!"

"It's not that simple. Your Pre-War body can't-"

Gaz cut McNamara off mid-sentence "I know. My body can't handle the radiation. I don't care. I have a breathing mask and anti-rad chems. Are you going to help me or just tell me things I already know?"

"The mask and the chems are a good start, but you need something more if you don't want to develop cancer later in life. You need this." He said and opened his desk. He picked up a large syringe with a long needle. It was filled with a semi-clear bluish liquid.

"What is that?"

"The medical staff calls it a vaccine for radiation, it will make you much more resistant to rads."

"There is no way in hell I'm sticking that thing in my arm…"

"You still don't trust me huh? You know, I think I have a someone who can change your mind." He said and hit the intercom button on his desk "Davis, could you please come to my office? I need you to-"

Gaz grabbed him and pulled him away from the intercom and shoved the heavy caliber pistol into McNamara's gut

"If this is your way of building trust, then you're off to a bad start!" She said jamming the pistol barrel deeper into his abdomen

"Just have a little faith. If I lie you can shoot me dead."

When the metal door opened a man in red scribe robes came walking out. Gaz knew for a fact that she had never met this man once in her life and yet, he looked so familiar. She was actually taken back a bit by his appearance, she almost lowered the gun. He looked back at her with the same trepidation

"You're… You're Gaz Patterson, right?"

She turned to McNamara "Who is he?"

"His name is Davis Patterson."

"We have a similar last name, big deal. You think this changes the fact that you kidnapped me?"

"My great-great grandfather was Grant Patterson." The young man said

Gaz froze, petrified. She very carefully looked him, his green eyes, brown hair, angular face. He was a splitting image of her brother give or take a few features. She had lowered the gun without even realizing it.

"He…Grant… He lived through the war?"

"Yes, he left a very detailed account. After the war he grouped up with other survivors and journeyed south. He was other of the original members of the Brotherhood of Steel."

She pulled her dog tag chain out and took her brother's class ring off. She placed the pistol of the desk and approached Davis. She extended her arm and gave the ring to the young man.

"You should have this. It belonged to Grant."

"I… I appreciate it."

Gaz wanted him to tell her everything he knew about he r brother, she wanted to know how he avoided the radiation and fallout, she wanted to know about his journey from the Canadian Base he was stationed at to the Bunkers of Las Vegas, about how he formed part of the original Brotherhood, and most of all she wanted to know how he died after the war. She wanted to ask, but the threat of another Great War erupting at any moment made her hold her questions. She took the needle and injected the fluid into her arm. It felt numbing as is spread through her body.

"It will take a while to take effect. Davis, why don't you take her to the armory and get her equipped."

Davis nodded and led her out the door, there was a crowd of people in power armor standing outside, evidently eavesdropping one the conversation. They all took a slight step back in surprise when she walked out and they regarded Gaz as if she was a celebrity, several recruits actually saluted her as she walked by. It was the same kind of respect a New Canaanite would pay to Walker or Joshua.

"Why are they doing that?"

"You're famous Gaz. Everyone knows you played a huge role in taking down the Enclave. We also know about you're acts of bravery in Alaska. Not only that, but your brother was an original member. Speaking of which what was he like? I've read all about his journey down the west coast and some of his journal entries, he seemed to mention you a lot."

Gaz smiled, aside from his striking resemblance, Davis also possessed the same demeanor of her brother "He was a soft spoken fellow, but determined. Before I entered stasis he warned me about what might happen if the Chinese nuked us while I was still in stasis. Guess I should have listened to him."

They entered the armory, there was various energy weapons on the wall and well as suits of power armor. Davis picked a perfectly good condition Gauss Rifle and handed it to Gaz, the Railgun was still covered in grease from when it was manufactured. Gaz then took a minute to examine her Tesla Armor. It was still functioning and wearable, but had taken a serious beating from the weeks of use with no servicing. Davis saw her checking over her armor and smiled.

"I think we have an old suit you could have to replace that." He said and typed a few keys on a locked storage locker. He reached inside and hauled out an advanced suit of T-51b Power Armor, it had been painted with a woodland green camouflage instead of the regular steely silver.

"This was Grant's armor, try it on."

Davis stepped out of the room as she changed. Gaz grinned a little when she saw the name tag on the collar of the suit; it read " _Lt. Grant Patterson. Serial Number_ 44067 _the 37_ _th_ _Mechanized Cavalry_." The suit felt lighter than the Tesla Armor. She put the old Tesla Armor in the locker and walked out of the armory. Davis was waiting for her,

"That particular model was meant for the Cavalry, you can move a lot fasted in that than in a standard suit. The helmet also has an air filtration system to help deal with rad hot spots. Come on, that serum has probably taken full effect now. Let's get you to the Divide."

For the first time since Alaska, Gaz put on the Power Helmet even though she usually hated them

"Just point me to the exit."

Davis took her down a long hallway and up to a large door. MacNamara was waiting for them with the rest of Gaz's equipment.

"How do I get to the Divide from here?"

"We have a Vertibird that can take you. Normally I'd be staunchly opposed to it, but seeing as how the future of the Mojavie is hanging in the balance I think I'll make an exception."

Gaz turned to Davis and shook his hand,

"Your brother would be proud." He said smiling

MacNamara opened the door and revealed a hanger with two dual-prop heliocopters. He hit a button located near the door and the roof began to open, revealing a night sky and sand from the Mojavie above them poured in. Gaz was ushered into the Vertibird, inside was two Paladins in power armor.

"These two men will escort you through the Divide. Remember; the future of the Mojavie rests in your hands."

The proplelers began to spin and grenarated a deafaning noise. MacNamera slid the door to the Vertibird and the aircraft lifted off the ground and out of the hanger. She slid her helmet off, it was just like old times; strapping on a suit of power armor and swooping into battle on a Veritbird. As they acended, Gaz could see the lights of New Vegas in the distnace, it looked like a becan of life and activity in the otherwise pitch-black wasteland. Gaz had never felt this type of pressure before, in the past she had fought for a cause, but that cause seemed minascule compared to what she currently faced. This was something that was bigger than her, bigger than Floyd and bigger than both the NCR and Legion combined. They remained airborn for about a half hour until the Divide's massive guoge in the Earth was visible. The early morning sun had just breeched the horized when they began their decent. Seeing the Divide from the air was both aw inspiering and horrifing. As she exsamined the massive canyon she noticed something that made her skin crawl: A nuclear misslie was being raised up from out of its silo.

"What the hell…"

With thunderous roar and whoosh of firey exsahust, the misslie shot out of its silo and into the air. The piolet grabbed the radio

"We have a nuclear misslie launch! I repeat missile is in the air! Missile is in the air!"

The missile shot several hundred yards into the atmosphere until the back end began to fishtail back and forth before the rocket's jet engine completely cut out. The weapon of mass destruction then began to rapidly lose speed before plunging back down to the ground. Gaz turned away from the window to avoid being blinded from the flash and straped herself in. The blinding flash only lasted a fraction of a second, but one of the Paladins had stared directly into it and was now clutching his face and screaming in pain. When the half-second flash subsided, the sound wave from the explosion hit. It wasn't like a "bang" or a deep "booming" noise, it was more like a deep and unfathomably loud bellow that had come from the deepest depths of hell. Gaz looked looked on in horror at the mushroom cloud; red and orange plumes of fire and streaks of inky black smoke. The shockwave slammed into the Vertibird like a brick wall, one of the Paladins was thrown out of his seat. Then, as if someone flicked off a lightswitch, all of the electronic equipment simultaniously shut off. The EMP had short ciurcuted the aircraft's electrial system and the two engins lost power.

"OH MY GOD!" the piolet screamed as they plumeted back down to earth. Gaz braced herself as the ground got closer and closer. She could hear chunks of debrie slamming into the hull of the air craft. They sounded small at first, then they sounded bigger and left massive dents in the metal. A piece of twisted rebar came flying through the windshield of the cockpit at nearly the speed of sound and impaled the piolet. Blood splattered all over her and the two Paladins. Luckily, the aircraft was still coming down at an angle, it hit the ground belly first and began to skid across the sand. The nose of the Vertibird smashed into a conctrete pillar. The rapid loss of speed caused her head to jolt back directly into the steel frame of the aircraft, Gaz felt the blood drip down the back of her neck when everything faded to black.


	7. Wind-Burnt

_**My dear readers,**_

 _ **I am VERY sorry I've been neglecting to update my story, but the past couple months haven't been very good to me. This isn't much of an excuse but here it goes: I based the character "Gaz" off the girl I was dating at the time. She actually convinced me to set up my current fanfiction account, came up with my username "ChopChop" and even inspired me to write my first Old World Soldier story. When she broke up with me two months ago I found it very difficult to write about a character that was based off her. She ruined a lot of things for me, but by god she isn't going to ruin my passion for Fallout. Sorry I kept you all waiting, and as always, if you have any story suggestions, please let me know; I'm always down to talk to my audience.**_

 _ **~ChopChop**_

The chattering sound of automatic weapons and the high pitched zapping noise of a laser rifle was what woke Gaz from her blackout. Her eyes snapped open, she was still in the crashed Vertibird. In front of her was the dead and mangled body of one of the Paladins. His helmet was off and his eyes were still wide open, the intensely bright flash had blinded him and seared milky white cataracts over his pupils. Cold, congealed blood was dripping out the corners of his eyes, making it look as if he was crying blood. Every so often she heard the loud "ping!" of a bullet ricocheting off the armored hull of the wrecked aircraft. The other Paladin was sitting at the open door of the aircraft, occasionally peeking out and firing his tri-beam laser rifle at a distant enemy. Even through his power armor had softened the impact, his right leg was twisted and contorted in such a grizzly manner that it would probably have to be amputated. He glanced over at her.

"Lt. Patterson! Are you ok?!" He shouted, she could hear the pain in his voice

She was shocked that such a wounded man would be concerned about someone other than himself. She gave herself the once over, aside from the swollen bump on her head she was ok.

"I'm alright! What's our situation?!"

"The pilot and my comrade are dead. Those things…. The skin stripped ghouls… They got us surrounded. I don't know how many there are."

Gaz put her helmet on and searched around the wreck for her equipment. Her weapons seemed ok, but a fair amount of her medical supplies had been destroyed. A dark mixture of stimpack serum and RadAway fluid dripped out of her first aid kit. She had five stimpacks still intact and only two bags of RadAway that hadn't broken open. The rest of the medicine had been ruined. She drew the M1 Grand rifle Floyd had left her and cocked a .308 armor piercing round into the chamber. She used the stock of the rifle to bash out a porthole to use as a shooting position. She peered out the window and took in her situation; the Vertibird had crashed just to the south of the Hopeville barracks, she could see the silhouettes of Marked Men moving about in the distance and could feel them watching her. She knew Ulysses had said to find him at the end of the Divide so her next move was to head north up the canyon. However, before she could attempt this, she had to figure out what to do with the injured Paladin and after that devise a way to get past the Marked Men lurking around the wreck. The Paladin sighed and looked at his horrifically twisted leg, then he looked at Gaz.

"We both know I'm not going any farther…" He said

"Your friends back at the base can airlift you right?" Gaz said

"No… McNamara told us we'd have no support or extraction team. We're on our own here." He said, he seemed to have a tone of regret in his voice

"What are you suggesting?"

"I obviously can't come with you… But I can cover you…" He said

"What are you saying?"

The Paladin pointed to an closed gate to the north, it was just past the barracks and armory "I'm saying if you make a run for that gate, then I can cover you."

"What about you?"

"Look, your life is far more important than mine. If you waste time getting me to safety then you'll jeopardize the future of the whole damn wasteland. If you're anything like your brother Grant I'm sure you'll do just fine on your own."

The idea of leaving an injured man behind went against everything Gaz believed in, leaving someone behind in a dreadful place like the Divide made this feel even worse. But he was right. Gaz took a breath to speak; she was trying to think of something to say. She wanted to thank him and take off after Floyd but at the same time she wanted to move him to a safer place where the deranged ghouls couldn't fine him. Her train of thought was interrupted by a group of five Marked Men, all converging on the crashed Vertibird. Even through their faces had been stripped of skin, they still all had a look of loathing and hatred that was visible even without expression defining facial features. They carried weapons of various types; one carried a heavy shoulder-mounted-machinegun, two of them had plasma weapons one had a service rifle and one even had an industrial backpack-mounted arc welder. The distinctive chugging sound of the shoulder-mounted MG came to life coupled with the shrieking whine of plasma rifles firing. The whole wreck of the aircraft shook as the small arms fire and plasma bolts impacted.

"Run out the other side of the wreck and loop around the pillar we crashed into! I'll keep them busy!" The Paladin shouted

She bolted out the ripped open hull of the Veribird. Her brother's cavalry power armor allowed her to run as fast as she could unhindered. She ran to the pillar of cement the aircraft had crashed into and peeked around the other side. The marked men were getting closer, the one armed with the service rifle ran forward in an attempt to bum-rush the Paladin but was vaporized in a bright red flash from a tri-laser bolt. The others then rushed forward as well, sporadically firing into the hull where the injured Paladin was hiding. The Marked Man with the arc-welder fired at nearly point blank range , the arc of electricity and searing heat instantly burned through the steel of his power armor. Waves of electrical energy cascaded through the armor and his body and he let out a final scream of pain as he was electrocuted. Gaz felt like someone had tapped a pin into her heart, the guilt that swept through her was then replaced with thoughts of revenge as the Marked Men laughed at their latest kill. She drew her minigun and crept up behind them. They whipped around when they heard the sound of the minigun spin to life but it was too late. The loud "BRRRT" noise of the minigun drowned out the sound of their screams.

The six minigun's barrels glowed red hot as oily smoke drifted off them. Gaz checked to see if the Paladin was still alive. There was a hole the size of her fist where the arc-welder had melted through his armor, smoke and the stink of burnt flesh wafted out of the hole. She didn't know this man, he didn't deserve to die like this, no one deserved to die like that. She needed a minute; the past few days had been more stressful than the entire battle of the Grand Canyon. She took a deep breath through the filter on her helmet, the breathing apparatus made the air taste like plastic. She exhaled and continued on her way, past the rubble of destroyed cars and the ancient barracks of the Hopeville military base. She had holstered the minigun on her back and had drawn "This Machine", her M1 Grand. Heading north was the only thing left to do at this point. As she speedily paced through the ruins of Hopeville she couldn't help but develop a strange and eerie feeling of nostalgia. She knew this place back when it was in its former glory; everything seemed so familiar but at the same time so different. The green grass that surrounded the barracks in her time was replaced with reddish brown metallic sand. There was a massive amount of wreckage thrown into the area to; smashed cars, twisted steel girders and rebar, there was even a massive 120mm howitzer cannon that the blast had picked up and thrown into the area. As she walked she began to notice the shot-up bodies of marked men lying in the road, they had all been stripped of any usable supplies weapons and ammunition. There was clearly a fight here between the Marked Men and an opposing force. She stopped walking and analyzed the scene; the bodies were lying on one side of the road, the other side of the crumbling street was a drainage ditch. The Marked Men's attacker must have used the ditch as a trench for cover; there were hundreds of spent brass bullet casings lining the ditch. She picked up a handful and examined the different calibers of the cases. She found a lot of the common .308 round, a few big .50 caliber cases were also scattered about.

But then she noticed something that gave her a glimmer of hope in the desolate confines of The Divide: lying amongst the other countless bullet casings was the unmistakable case of a .45 automatic. Gaz knew there was only one group of people that exclusively used .45 autos: The New Canaanites. Floyd had been here. He had obviously been in a nasty fight, but the lack of blood and his body made it apparent he had won. She picked up her pace and continued down the road. She passed the lifeless body of a hulking Marked Man with raw biceps the size of tree stumps, he was as big if not bigger than Floyd. He had an unwieldy flamethrower backpack-tank strapped to his back and the nozzle still clutched in his torn-up hands. There was seven large-caliber pistol wounds in his lower abdomen, the wounds looked like they had been inflicted by either a .44 magnum or a .45 auto. Gaz liked to believe it was Floyd and his pistol "Light Shining In Darkness" that had killed the colossal Marked Man. She regarded the body warily as she approached, using the muzzle of her M1 Grand she jabbed the body in the face. It didn't flinch. She kept moving, keeping a close eye on her Pip-Boy's threat scanner as well as any corners or potential hiding places. She abruptly heard a rapid series of high-pitched beeping, she looked at her feet just in time to see a satchel-charge detonate. The explosion picked her up and threw her back, a wave of shrapnel and broken earth plastered the metal plates of her armor. The bright flash from the blast turned her world white and replaced her sense of hearing with a high pitched ringing sound. She landed on her back, aside from white-blurred vision and shell-shocked hearing she was uninjured. She rolled over to her knees; the head injury from the Vertibird crash combined with the concussion wave from the satchel-charge had really rang her bell. She dizzily got to her feet and regained her bearings; her vision was still blurred but her slowly hearing was returning to normal. She took off her helmet and rubbed the blur out of her eyes. She glanced up and saw the hazy outline of a person limping towards her. She tried to focus, it kind of looked like Floyd but she wasn't sure.

"Floyd?! Is that you?!" She shouted but could barely hear her own voice over the ringing in her ears, the figure however didn't answer. He merely kept limping forward

"F-Floyd?" Her voice broke as she called again, her vision was returning to normal and the figure was coming into focus now. The closer the figure got the less it looked like Floyd

Gaz clicked the safety off her rifle and took aim.

"Stay where you are!"

The figure kept walking forward

"I am fucking warning you!"

Her vision had completely returned to normal and for the first time the figure was now distinguishable: It sure as hell wasn't Floyd. It was the Marked Man from before with the flamethrower. He brandished the nozzle and squeezed the release valve and igniter, he roared a savage howl as a torrent of liquid fire was unleashed. Gaz had been standing slightly out of the flamethrower's range so she was able to avoid the stream of napalm and return fire. Gaz rapidly and accurately fired all eight .308 rounds into the Marked Man's chest. He obviously felt the rifle rounds ripping through him but didn't seem to be phased. He was driven by irradiated rage, hatred, anger and torment. Blood seeped out of his mouth of decayed and broken teeth. Gaz moved back as he advanced, wildly spraying jets of flame at her. She hastily reloaded and continued to shoot back. In an adrenaline induced rush, he sprang forward and managed to splatter her with a small plume of burning napalm. She panicked as she tried to get it off, the flaming adhesive petroleum stuck to everything it came in contact with. The gloves on her armor were thick enough to protect her from seriously burning herself but it still hurt. Luckily the Marked Man's flamethrower had a stoppage and the Marked Man tried furiously to get his weapon to work. Gaz saw her opportunity, she stopped trying to put out the fire and drew her 12.7mm pistol and aimed for the fuel tank on his back. One shot was all it took, the tank ruptured in a fire ball consuming the Marked Man in burning petroleum. The oxygen was sucked out of his lungs taking away his ability to scream. Gaz holstered the pistol and patted out the fire. She stood there panting, then went and picked up her helmet and put it on before continuing on her way. She continued north, paying close attention to where she put her feet to avoid stepping on anymore landmines. Every so often she'd see signs of Floyd; .45 auto casings, an empty clip to his automatic rifle and even a few butts to the hand-rolled cigarettes that he smoked. Gaz was worried about him so much it made her nauseas, and after seeing the nuclear missile launch she couldn't help but wonder if Floyd had been involved. Just then she heard a recognizable beeping, it wasn't a landmine, it was the little eyebot ED-E. The Sputnik-like robot was emitting a panicked and rapid series of beeps so fast that Gaz could barely decipher what he was trying to say. The only beep that she recognized immediately was when ED-E beeped something that sounded like "Floyd" and "In serious trouble." Gaz didn't need to know anymore

"Take me to him! Let's go! Let's go!" She said and double timed it down the road


	8. Down the Rabbit Hole

_**Hello everyone,**_

 _ **Seeing as how my ex-girlfriend came up with my username "ChopChop" I think it's appropriate to rename my account. From this day forward, I will be known as "ThatGoodOl'Boy." Anyway this chapter isn't very long but I feel like I own one to you guys to make up for my long period of absence**_

 _Floyd straightened his tie as he walked through the door of the Tops Casino. The doorman asked if he had any weapons and in response Floyd gave him a .44 magnum revolver. After checking in his weapons he ordered a whisky on the rocks and began his hunt; he had traveled half way across the Mojave Wasteland in search of him: Benny. The very thought of the man in the checkered suit made his head burn with anger. Floyd didn't have to look very far for his target, walking down the casino's grand staircase was Benny and his entourage. Floyd downed his whisky and lit a cigarette, he needed a little courage for what he was about to do. Benny was joking with his bodyguards as Floyd approached, he didn't notice Floyd at first. Floyd cleared his throat to get Benny's attention, the con-man turned around, then did a double take at Floyd. Benny's eyes were wide, a cold sweat formed on his forehead._

" _What in the Goddamn?! Hey-Hey let's keep this smooth huh? Smooth like smooth little babies…." Benny said stuttering_

" _It seems you need to improve your marksmanship…" Floyd said and blew a ring of cigarette smoke into Benny's face_

" _Oh no, I hit what I was aiming for. Maybe you just didn't have a brain to hit. So what now? You look like you've been through the ringer to get to me…"_

" _Well to be honest when I woke up the first thing I wanted to do was track you down and drive a bullet through your skull…" Floyd said, Benny's body guards reached into their jackets for their guns "But to be honest Benny, that's not me anymore."_

 _Benny raised an eyebrow "That's unbelievable… Like literally, I'm not being metaphorical, I am literally unable to believe that you aren't mad after getting' shot in the head…"_

" _Benjamin- Benny- Ben… I forgive you." Floyd said_

" _You what?"_

" _I forgive you for trying to kill me. Getting shot in the head made me realize that I can't hold onto anger." Floyd said, it took every ounce of Floyd's willpower to say it with a straight face_

 _Benny stood there in disbelief "Well… Shit… I'm uh… heh sorry I shot you. You want have a couple drinks while we hash out some of the more refined details? I could actually use a man like you."_

" _Sure, but on one condition; we go talk in a place a little more private- like. Know what I'm sayin'? We can discuss business of this nature out in the open." Floyd said_

" _Agreed. Come on up with me to the Presidential Suite. After what you've been through you've earned it."_

 _Floyd, Benny and two body guards stepped into the elevator and ascended to the top floor. Floyd sayed quite, maintaining a neutral expression so he wouldn't give Benny a reason to be suspicious. Even though he had given his pistol to the doorman, Floyd still had a few tricks of his sleeve, literally. When the elevator door opened they all stepped out and took a seat at the bar._

" _Would you boys excuse me for a sec? I gotta take a piss." Benny said and walked to the bathroom_

 _As soon as the bathroom door closed Floyd drew a poisoned straight-razor out of his sleeve and slashed it across the windpipe of the closest body guard. Blood shot from the wound and sprayed the other guard who was reaching for his pistol. By the time the body guard had his .357 drawn and cocked Floyd was upon him; furiously slashing him left and right with the poisoned straight-razor. Floyd took the pistol out of the dead man's hand and took a seat back at the bar. As he waited to Benny to come back he helped himself to some expensive looking scotch. He put a few ice cubes in his glass and leisurely swung his feet onto the bar. The sound of the toilet flushing let Floyd know Benny was coming._

" _Sorry about the wait big fella. Now about your-" Benny stopped talking when he noticed the cut-up bodies of his guards and the blood splattered figure sitting at the bar._

 _Floyd swished the ice and scotch around in his glass and kept the pistol pointed at Benny's head. Floyd took a sip_

" _Benny, I really gotta hand it to you… You have an exquisite taste in scotch. But by now you've probably figured out that I didn't track you down to talk about the scotch…" Floyd said and took another sip_

" _You fink! I can't believe I actually trusted you!"_

" _Why would you trust a man that you shot in the head? HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK I AM!?" Floyd bellowed_

 _Benny rushed over to the intercom "Guards! I need back up on the top floor right now!"_

 _Floyd shot the intercom and stood up "They can't help you now."_

 _Benny drew his signature chrome-plated 9mm pistol but Floyd was faster. He shot Benny twice in the chest, then put the revolver at waist level and fanned the gun's hammer, rapidly firing off the remaining shots. Benny collapsed and gasped for breath with collapsed lungs, Floyd discarded the empty .357 and reached for his other 'hold-out' weapon: A sawed-off double barreled shotgun. He placed gun's twin barrels on the bridge of Benny's nose and fired both barrels simultaneously, Benny the con-man was no more._

Floyd snapped awake, he had been dreaming of his past confrontation with Benny. Tracking Benny down and getting his vengeance was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do. But now in The Divide, he had a new personal vendetta; Ulysses. He was wounded and alone again, the little eyebot ED-E had taken off all of a sudden. Floyd had taken cover in a rusted out camper van, a pervious fight with a Marked Man armed with a flamethrower had resulted in a nasty burn on his lower right leg. He was out of stimpacks, so to deal with the burn he resorted to tribal medicine: Datura leaves mixed with mashed up agave and aloe. It worked slower than stimpacks but it would have to do. Floyd thought he would be relatively safe in the rusted out van, but that was when he heard the chainsaw. Another Marked Man had seen him through the van's shattered window and was now coming for him. The ghoul lifted the chainsaw above his head and let out a savage howl as he gassed up the chainsaw's engine.

"I know you're in there!" He rasped out

Floyd cocked his automatic rifle "Jackhammer" and limped outside

"Well here I am!" Floyd screamed as he opened fire

Meanwhile, ED-E was guiding Gaz through the treachery of The Divide and back to Floyd. There were signs that Floyd had been here, his cigarette buts, spent .45 auto casings, the occasional empty drum-magazine from his Thompson SMG. ED-E guided her to a semi-collapsed underpass tunnel which led under a mountain. She stopped and looked at the tunnel then at ED-E

"You sure this is the only way?"

ED-E made a few confirmatory beeps

"I'm going to regret this." Gaz said as she entered the tunnel

The air inside the tunnel was cool and damp when compared to the hot and dry winds of the outside inside the tunnel. Destroyed cars, trucks, smashed bits of asphalt and concrete as well and twisted metal was strewn and heaping all over the tunnel. Gaz activated the flashlight mounted on her helmet and kept her M1 Grand rifle at the ready. Everything about this place was off putting. She heard the sound of movement echo from deep within the tunnel. There was a single red dot on her Pip-Boy's threat scanner. She advanced slowly, she could hear her own heart thumping in her chest. She peeked around an overturned school bus and froze. One of her worst fears was standing in front of her; a fully grown deathclaw. It hadn't noticed her yet, it was preoccupied eating the body of a Marked Man. Gaz's fear of deathclaws came back to haunt her, cold sweat poured from her forehead and her breathing increased. She quietly pulled the Gauss Rifle from her pack and placed the crosshairs over the deathclaw's left eye. In the tunnels close confines there was no place to run, she knew if she missed she was as good as dead. She did her best to control her breathing as she switched off the rifle's electric safety catch. Suddenly the deathclaw stopped eating and perked its head up. For a spilt second she thought she had been spotted, but then the deathclaw turned away from her and began to walk towards something at the other end of the tunnel. She had been so focused on the deathclaw that she failed to hear the commotion occurring at the opposite end of the tunnel. The deathclaw arced its back in preparation to attack something; Gaz wasn't sure what it was. She saw the deathclaw walk around to the other side of a slab of concrete. She carefully watched, then she heard something; a yelp of pain and frustration from the deathclaw combined with a raspy hissing sound. The deathclaw came stumbling around the corner and collapsed. There was bloody lacerations all over the beast's body; it looked like it had been badly mauled by something much bigger. A lump formed in Gaz's throat, whatever killed the deathclaw was obviously a much bigger threat. She advanced slowly, keeping a tight grip on her rifle. She peeked around the corner, expecting to see a massive mutant capable of taking down a deathclaw. But the creature that she saw was actually much smaller. It was smaller than her in fact. It had a humanoid figure, but was covered in scales, a crown of glowing horns was on its head and it had big green bioluminescent eyes. She lowered the rifle, could this scrawny little creature really have taken down a deathclaw? Suddenly the ground shook, another one of the creatures borrowed up and poked its head out of the hole in the ground. Another came and another; climbing over the wrecked cars and debris, soon there was over fifteen of the creatures surrounding her. She leveled the Gauss Rifle at the closest one and slung a round of hardened steel through its chest causing it to fly backwards. She took off running to the end of the tunnel, the creatures in hot pursuit. They were charging at her from both sides, she drew pistols. With her sleek black .45 auto in her right hand and 12.7mm pistol in her left she opened fire. The heavy caliber pistol shots echoed through the tunnel, attracting the attention of even more of the creatures. She put a fresh clip in each pistol and kept going, trying to ignore the fact that the tunnel was rapidly becoming filled with the creatures. The end of the tunnel was now in sight. Harsh ultraviolet sunlight flooded the exit to the tunnel. As soon as she reach the light, the creatures stopped. A few of the creatures tried to follow her into the light but yelping in pain when the sun touched their skin. She stood there panting, then looked at the road ahead of her; The High Road. 


	9. Unification

_**Hey guys I'm back home for the summer so I'll try to update a little more often. Anyway, I got a nice little chapter for you that I hope you'll enjoy. Also, a few years back I had a made a FictionPress (NOT FanFiction) account and had published a few stories. I recently logged back on and looked at a few of my older stories, I have one in particular that never really got much attention so I'd really appreciate it if you guys would take a look at it and let me know what you think, here's the link s/3173366/1/What-We-Reap. I never got around to finishing it because I had begun focusing my attention on my first Old World Soldier story. But if you, my loyal fans, enjoy it then I'll put the finishing chapters together.**_

 _ **~ThatGoodOl'Boy**_

Gaz looked at what seemed like an endless stretch of crumbling highway overpass. Behind her was the semi-collapsed underpass; she could still hear the underground dwelling mutants "tunnelers" that seemed to be vulnerable to direct sunlight. Ahead of her on the road was a battered military cargo truck, its tiers flat and engine block exposed. She walked forward carefully, keeping a close eye out for land mines and satchel charges. As she passed the beat up cargo truck she heard a voice. It was raspy and sounded enraged.

"You don't wanna be here…" said a bulky Marked Man. He was leaning against the truck, and was standing there as if he had been waiting for her. He had a heavy looking shoulder-mounted-machinegun yoked across his massive shoulders

"No. I don't want to be here. But I have to finish was I started." She said, and clicked the safety off her M1 Grand

The Marked Man laughed "You're lookin' for that courier, Walker, aren't you? He passed by here not too long ago. He didn't look like he was doing too well…"

Gaz girt her teeth and raised the rifle "So help me god if you even touched him I'll… I'll…"

"Hehehe You'll what? You think I'm afraid of you? You think that there is anything you could possibly do to me that's worse than this?" He said and outstretched his arms so she could see his exposed flesh and laughed again "Hahaha. Little girls shouldn't play with guns."

The Marked Man swung the hefty machinegun onto his shoulder and opened fire. For a non-power armored person, the Marked Man's SMMG would be a serious threat. But the small 10mm rounds bounced off her armor as if they were pebbles. She lowered the rifle and walked forward into the direct automatic gunfire, then reared the gun's stock back and rifle-butted the Marked Man in the face. She kicked away his weapon and shoved her rifle's barrel into the Marked Man's mouth.

"WHERE IS HE?!" She demanded

"Go ahead. Shoot me. You'd be granting me peace." The ghoul said calmly

She pointed the rifle at his knee cap and fired, the Marked Man wailed in pain

"You bitch!"

"WHERE IS HE!?" She demanded again and jabbed him in the teeth with the M1's muzzle, a few shattered tooth fragments fell out

"WHERE!?" She rifle bashed him again "WHERE?! WHERE?! WHERE?!" Each one of her questions was punctuated with another jab to the face

"He's gone you fool! Down the road. Just follow the trail of my brother's corpses and you'll find him eventually!"

Gaz stood up and turned around and began walking down the road

"Aren't you forgetting something? Finish the job, human!" The Marked Man demanded

She turned around and shot him between the eyes. Ahead of her were two crumbling sky scrapers on either side of the freeway. One of them had toppled over and was leaning on the other building; below them were a few random corpses of Marked Men that had presumably been killed by Floyd. There was a walkway on the toppled building leading up to ramshackle lookout post. There were .45 auto casings scattered about on the walkway, Floyd had been up there recently or still might be there. She began walking up the shaky walkway, she could feel it swaying in the irradiated winds.

"Why the hell would he try and climb this thing?" Gaz said to herself as she ascended

ED-E made a few cautionary beeps

"I know how high up I am. Don't remind me."

She reached the top and carefully maneuvered her way over to the lookout post. There was a cracked beam of cement that she had to cross first to get to the lookout. Once she tiptoed over the beam she took a look around. There was an empty drum magazine to a Thompson submachine gun lying next to a bed roll as well as a splatter of dried blood and an old suit of badly damaged combat armor. There was also a dead ghoul slumped out of a window, this ghoul wasn't like the other Marked Men. He still had a few patches of unburnt skin, kind of like the body of her former commander, General Retslaf that she and Floyd had found in the missile base. The dead ghoul had been stripped of his armor and weapons. Gaz knew Floyd had a tendency to loot dead bodies. Floyd had defiantly been here, but he was gone now. She shouldered her Gauss rifle and used its scope to survey the road ahead. Way out in the distance was the unmistakable silhouette of a deathclaw stalking the ruined freeway but it was too far away for an accurate shot. The far off deathclaw then stopped and sniffed the wind.

"There is no way it could have smelled me from here…" Gaz thought

She suddenly heard the sound of heavy automatic gunfire, the distant deathclaw went running after something, she couldn't tell what. She took off her helmet and listened; it sounded like a heavy caliber machinegun. She vaguely recognized the sound of the weapon, it sounded like a .308 automatic rifle with its jackhammer-like report. Gaz realized Floyd used an automatic rifle just like it and she bolted back down the walkway. It was just a hunch, but aside from Floyd, not many people used .308 automatics. She went sprinting down the freeway. The sound of the automatic rifle grew louder with each step. There were dead bodies of Marked Men strewn all across the road, many of them had been riddled with large caliber pistol wounds and there was .45 auto cases everywhere. In the distance she could see the deathclaw slump over and die. But on the landward horizon she could see more coming, clamoring over wrecked cars and debris. They weren't coming for her though, the deathclaws were after someone else. She realized they were now within range of her Gauss Rifle and she stopped and took aim. Her first shot hit the deathclaw in the leg and it dropped to its knees. As she reloaded the wounded Deathclaw was killed by a .50 caliber rifle shot to the head. The other deathclaws charged forward, the silhouette of a man came out from behind a concrete pillar and went sprinting to find new cover as the deathclaws converged on him. The distant figure was holding a large anti-material rifle which he then put over his back and drew a distinct .308 automatic before opening fire with it. Gaz sighted another deathclaw, the one closest to the figure and squeezed the trigger. The heavy round penetrated its chest and knocked it over but didn't kill it. It flailed about on the ground before attempting to get back up, Gaz shot it in the chest again before it could. The distant figure hurled a satchel charge at the deathclaws and it exploded in the middle of the group, tossing them about and scattering them. Gaz slung another railgun round into the head of one of the bigger ones, the distant figure followed suit with his .50 caliber rifle. When the shooting stopped the figure turned to her and began walking in her direction. Gaz took a deep breath through her helmets air filters and walked forward as well. As he came closer, Gaz was able to see he was wearing prewar riot gear with a Kevlar trench coat and a face obscuring riot helmet. He had his anti-material rifle in hand but lowered. They were about twenty feet apart when he stopped walking, Gaz stopped too. Her heart was beating so fast she could hear it in her helmet.

"Floyd?" Gaz said removing her helmet.

The figure removed his own helmet. Gaz's eyes welled up in tears of joy. It was Floyd, he had a similar expression. Floyd drew a breath to speak, but a Marked Man popped up behind a highway barrier and mounted a missile launcher onto his shoulder

"BEHIND YOU!" Gaz screamed

Floyd turned around just in time to see the Marked Man's missile launch. He dove out of the way, but the missile detonated in the ground right next to him. The explosion picked Floyd up and threw him against the rusted out hulk of a wrecked car and he fell to the ground. Gaz drew her 12.7mm pistol "Lil Devil" and emptied the clip into the Marked Man. He stumbled over as she ran to Floyd. Floyd was bloodied and shell-shocked from the explosion and the air had been knocked out of his lungs, but he otherwise looked OK.

"Floyd! Floyd! Look at me! You're gonna be ok!"

As Gaz tried to get Floyd back on his feet the wounded Marked Man stood back up and reloaded his missile launcher. Gaz saw him swing the launcher shut

"Floyd! Get up! We gotta move! Come on! Come on! You gotta help me here!" She said as the Marked Man took aim

"HANG ON FLOYD!" She said as the missile took flight towards them. Gas threw her power-armored body over Floyd to protect him from the blast

Gaz must have crippled the Marked Man's arm, since the missile hit the ground and detonated right in front of them, showering the pair in broken concrete and earth. The Marked Man tossed the empty launcher aside and pulled a machete out of his belt and ran forward. Gaz picked up Floyd's .50 caliber rifle and shot him through the chest just as he closed the distance between them. The Marked Man stood there for a second glaring at her, she glared right back at him barring her teeth and panting. The Marked Man slumped over dead. She turned to Floyd and picked him up, then made a run for the back of a burnt out semi-truck trailer.


End file.
